The DIALOGUES project was involved in the COP26, one of the world’s largest annual conferences on climate change.

This year’s COP summit was hosted in partnership between the UK and Italy. The conference was held in Glasgow from 1-12 November 2021, a year later than planned due to delays caused by the COVID pandemic.

Karl-Ludwig Schibel (Climate Alliance Italy), partner in DIALOGUES chaired the side session ‘Engaging citizens in urban climate action for inclusive just transition programs’ on November 6. He presented DIALOGUES’ innovative Citizen Action Lab approach. He invited Rony Erez from the Heschel Foundation, Gillian Dick from Glasgow City, Gotelind Alber from Gender CC (also a partner in DIALOGUES), and the deputy mayors from Gent, Tine Heyse and from Bogotà, Carolina Urratia to talk about engaging citizens for the energy transition, fighting energy poverty and creating livable cities.

The discussion focused on how to gain the trust of those who have until now been left behind in the energy transition – vulnerable people, often suffering from energy poverty, single mothers and elderly people – and how to convince them that to act on their energy citizenship will improve their lives? This issue was addressed by all speakers throughout the session and solutions were drawn based on real examples of these people everyday life.

Watch the recording of this side session HERE.