Following the delivery of the Climate Label to Parma by the European Commission on March 21, 2024, approving the City Climate Contract, the Administration and signatories are committed to implementing the measures included in the Action Plan.
As part of this journey, the City of Parma has established the City Climate Assembly, a tool for sharing and involving citizens in choices for the city’s future.
HOW Through a series of meetings to raise awareness, inform and present goals, ideas and projects for a more sustainable city
WHEN The Assembly will be active between February and June 2025 and will consist of a series of 5 co-creation meetings, working tables, initiatives and events
RESULTS Raising awareness and information so that everyone is aware of what climate change is and what impacts it has on our lives, but also concrete proposals for the Administration to continue working on climate neutrality goals.
The Climate Citizen Assembly is made up of citizens in dialogue with technicians and professionals on issues central to the fight against climate change, and is an integral part of the Parma Climate Neutral 2030 pathway in the context of the “European Mission 100 Smart and Climate Neutral Cities.”
The 60 citizens who pledge to participate in the Climate Assembly are called to work on four themes: mobility, energy, circular economy, and urban environment, will be joined by experts, technicians, and facilitators to identify proposals for action to be implemented to achieve the goal of climate neutrality and arrive at concrete solutions for the city’s future.
Implemented with the support of Fondazione Cariparma, the pathway takes the form of the activation of thematic tables, which will meet on February 20, March 13 and April 3 and will focus on some of the key issues of Parma Climate Neutral 2030.
At the end of the work, a document will be drafted for each table containing citizens’ proposals, which will be screened and analyzed by the Administration.
The ambition of the Citizen’s Climate Assembly is to make the ecological transition more participatory, just and transparent, but also to initiate a debate on the long-term vision, thus helping to raise general awareness especially about the need to change our lifestyles and to screen possible further measures that will reduce the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable segments of the population.
It is a way to directly involve citizens on the issues surrounding this challenging project. The City of Parma started by involving environmental associations, the world of education and university, and the youth of Parma European Youth Capital. A group that will have to be able to bring all this to the citizens as well, because Parma 2030 is a project that needs widespread communication that can really affect everyone’s lives and behavior.
The Citizen Assembly for Climate represents a key step in a broader effort that the City of Parma is pursuing for the city’s ecological transition. The challenging and ambitious goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2030 requires a paradigm shift and a collective effort: only by acting as a single community, in which institutions, businesses, associations and citizens collaborate and support each other, can this goal be achieved.