The Climate Journey will be presented at the COP25 UN Climate Change Conference, at an EU Side Event – Meet-the-Expert session, on Wednesday December 3, from 11:30 to 13:30 CET, in the EU Pavilion within the COP25 site in Madrid, Spain.
Jesus Iglesias, Fernando Blasco and Luis Jimenez, representing SIC4Change, Líbero and Explora Málaga, 3 of the co-founding organizations, will share their collective journey behind the project, and how their respective fields of expertise converged into such an innovative and game-changing concept: social innovation for the climate (SIC4Change), action-oriented environmental education for youth empowerment (Líbero), and responsible tourism (Explora Málaga).
In previous editions of the UN Climate Change Conference, Jesus had already participated as a speaker and lead organizer of a diverse array of events around eco-entrepreneurship for climate action and social justice; dating back from COP21 in Paris in 2015, COP22 in Marrakech in 2016, COP23 in Bonn in 2017, and COP24 in Katowice last year, where he also took part in two EU Side Events on cultural heritage as a driver for climate innovation in resilient cities.
The Climate Journey takes shape as guided itineraries across cities and territories, to see the impacts, understand the causes and connections, and experience the solutions to the climate emergency, in terms of citizen participation, social economy, and nature-based solutions. All from a system-wide, complex perspective, emphasizing interconnections, and mobilizing towards local action and translocal cooperation.
It is structured as a collaborative network of cities and places, where local entities manage independent but interdependent local chapters sharing best practices, and jointly scaling up impact. Currently, besides Malaga (southern Spain) where the project finds its roots, Barcelona and Madrid have joined in, thanks to Aethnic -sustainable tourism association- and Rutas Pangea -ciclo & eco-tourism.
Along this line, this particular EU Side Event – Meet-the-Expert session is addressed at organizations working for climate action & justice in the Euro-Med region, which would like to be a part of this growing network by leading journeys in their own local communities.
More info on official COP25 EU Side Events website:
https://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/calendar/0138/calendar_en.htm#schedule
Furthermore, Líbero will also host a related COP25 side event, also on December 3, but right before (10:00-10:45 CET), in the Green Zone – Youth (Area 1), to present “The Great Game of the Guadalhorce Valley”, a gamification project for youth environmental education, with the climate crisis being central, implemented in collaboration with The Climate Journey.
During the game, participants go touring around an interactive space (the Rancho Limón farm in the province of Malaga), seeking to acquire knowledge on 5 different themes: climate change, feminism, Sustainable Development Goals, social economy, and rural world. Through direct interaction with the local environment, young people familiarize themselves both theoretically and practically with different concepts around social innovation that are integral to the work done on site: green building, urban art, agroecology, and permaculture. Via the Rancho Limón APP, players scan QR codes found throughout the farm, to access different tests, questions, challenges, and 6 different video games set in the reality of the Guadalhorce Valley.
