Udalsarea 2030, the Basque network of sustainable municipalities, held the 70th meeting of its Technical Committee on Tuesday. The event took place at the headquarters of the Association of Basque Municipalities, EUDEL, and brought together around fifty local authorities —including a dozen regional bodies— to jointly address local sustainability challenges.

Joseba Intxausti Iztueta, acting director of EUDEL, opened the session by stating that “local councils are tackling the energy and climate transition”, issues which were the focus of the meeting. “The challenge is global and cross-cutting, and local governments have a fundamental role to play in curbing the effects of climate change. It is an ambitious and shared endeavour.”

“2026 will be a year of strategic reflection, during which we will redefine the network’s objectives and areas of focus through a new agreement, with climate and energy as the key themes. We also want to drive forward initiatives that result in concrete projects.”

Alexander Boto Bastegieta, Director General of Ihobe, went on to refer to the new phase the network is about to enter: “2026 will be a year of strategic reflection, during which we will redefine objectives and lines of work through a new agreement, with climate and energy as the central themes. We also want to promote action that translates into concrete projects”.

In fact, the network’s Strategic Plan comes to an end in 2026. At the meeting, the evaluation carried out up to last year was shared, highlighting aspects such as the high level of participation in the network (260 organisations, with 90% of local councils in the Basque Country being part of it) and the development of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans, which an increasing number of municipalities have been implementing.

Lessons learnt from the Low Emission Zones in the Basque Country

The Technical Committee meeting served to present the final report of the Udalsarea 2030 Low Emission Zones (LEZ) working group. Between 2023 and 2025, this working group comprised the Basque municipalities legally required to implement a LEZ (Barakaldo, Bilbao, Donostia, Getxo, Irun and Vitoria-Gasteiz), and served to pool challenges, issues and solutions, with the aim of successfully advancing their implementation. In addition, the group benefited from expert technical assistance in the legal field.

At the meeting, the final report of the Udalsarea 2030 Low Emission Zones (LEZ) working group was presented. Between 2023 and 2025, this group comprised the Basque municipalities required to introduce a LEZ and served to pool challenges, issues and solutions, with the aim of ensuring the successful implementation of these zones.

Following several meetings, the group has compiled its findings in the document presented. “In addition to municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, those with more than 20,000 inhabitants that exceed the limit values set out in air quality regulations must also implement a LEZ. There are currently none in the Basque Country, but with the new EU directive due to be transposed, this may change. Among the lessons learnt from LEZs that have been the subject of legal proceedings in other regions, we saw that the implementation of the LEZ was not being sufficiently justified,” said Sofía Arana, from the technical consultancy Ekoiure.

To facilitate future establishments, the document sets out the basic characteristics of LEZs, the principles they must uphold, the group’s findings regarding legal challenges, and other relevant information. To illustrate the implementation process, Virginia Fernández Escudero, Head of the Mobility Projects Unit at Bilbao City Council, and Ana Juaristi, Head of the Environmental Health and Sustainability Service at Donostia City Council, have shared the experiences of their respective municipalities.

Climate and energy: the current and future pillars of Udalsarea 2030

The meeting continued with the two main themes that will form the focus of the network’s work from now on: climate and energy. In this regard, Izaskun de Allende, from Ihobe’s Climate Action department, discussed local planning in this area and the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy: “Since the last meeting, great strides have been made, and we now have around 30 more Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAPs). In total, 130 municipalities have already adopted one or are in the process of developing one.”

Climate and energy will be the focus of the network’s work in the future. These are already key issues, and local authorities are making progress in implementing Climate Action Plans and signing up to the Covenant of Mayors.

The same has been true of sign-ups to the Covenant of Mayors: “We have seen an increase, although we are finding different ways to make the most of this commitment,” stated de Allende. She also reiterated the idea that Udalsarea 2030 is a support network offering various resources, tools, advice, etc., both for the implementation of SECAPs and for their monitoring and evaluation: an updated guide for SECAPs, key points for contracting them, a publication on successful cases of NBS implemented in the Basque Country...

All this support is channelled through the Life Octopus project, enabling the various climate and energy initiatives to be aligned across the network. This establishes a coordinated working methodology aimed both at compliance with current legislation (SECAPs) and at driving forward local climate action.

Mari Mar Alonso, director of the Climate Action department at Ihobe, went on to explain the concrete opportunity presented by the LIFE 2026 call for proposals to submit a project application for Nature-Based Solutions with a regional focus, which requires collaboration between organisations: “We have contacted regional organisations that we knew had developed plans or projects, and we are going to launch a LIFE project with this regional focus, which we believe will set it apart. If you have any projects or frameworks in place, please let us know and we will see how we can structure this project to form a strong proposal and submit it to the call for proposals.”

A platform for local action

Two local authorities presented local initiatives at the meeting. The first of these was the Trapagarán Renaturalisation Plan: “We began by integrating green infrastructure and NBS into our day-to-day work. We didn’t start with a major project, but by bringing nature into our everyday activities: planning, design, implementation…”, explained Mikel García Aguado, a technical architect at the council. The first steps involved changes to vegetation, riverbanks and riverine areas, the selection and pruning of trees, SUDS… The actions undertaken since 2022 evolved into a Green Master Plan that also encompasses the social use of these spaces, “a structured knowledge base”. The Renaturalisation Plan has expanded this perspective and yielded a broader, more structured strategy. It is worth highlighting the importance of the ongoing work of the technical team, the gardening department and the municipal brigade.

At the Technical Committee meeting, Trapagarán presented its Renaturalisation Plan, Orio its Climate Change Adaptation Plan, and the Rioja Alavesa team a project on urban spaces designed to combat the heat.

Pilar Azurmendi Etxegarai, an architect with Orio Town Council, has presented the municipality’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan. “Climate change is already here. The problems are becoming increasingly critical and the pressure is mounting,” said Azurmendi. The municipality is increasingly at risk from floods, storms and gales, landslides, fires... To tackle these, the Plan has included NBS such as a dune on the beach, the restoration of the pond, man-made areas or wetlands, the creation of a map of climate shelters...

Aitor Senar Enekotegi, an environmental officer for the Rioja Alavesa region, has also presented a small-scale project in the municipality of Lezo: “Drawing on the knowledge of our ancestors, we are applying the methods used to maintain the temperature of wine to people. The aim is to improve and enhance an urban forest to create spaces suitable for coping with the heat, which will serve as a link between different urban areas. The intention is to carry out a pilot project so that it can be replicated in other municipalities.”

The Basque Country’s 2050 Roadmap for Energy Transition and Climate Change

The final part of the meeting focused on the Basque Country’s 2050 Roadmap for Energy Transition and Climate Change. Carlos Castillo, Project Manager in Ihobe’s Climate Action department, presented the draft, which aims to achieve climate neutrality, resilience, a fair transition and long-term technological development. The draft, in turn, sets out a strategy for 2030 comprising 20 strategic lines and almost 80 actions.

Local authorities state that their planning is in line with the Basque Country’s 2050 Roadmap for Energy Transition and Climate Change, although difficulties arise when working across departments, when implementing measures in certain sectors, or simply due to the day-to-day running of local councils.

Taking advantage of the network’s platform, a comparative exercise was carried out with the participating local authorities, which will also serve to identify best practices for the Life Octopus project as an example of network-based co-design of the energy and climate transition. As key general conclusions, they highlighted that, in general, municipal planning incorporates the priorities set out in this Roadmap, although certain difficulties often arise in implementing them, adding complexity when dealing with inter-departmental issues or applying them to different sectors, or due to the day-to-day running of local councils. They emphasised that coordination is necessary both internally within local councils and at the regional level or between administrations, which will help to improve public perception and move towards a model of co-governance.