Good practice:

PLAC, Local Climate Stakeholders Platform

The city of Almada in Portugal is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. In order to collectively work towards this objective, the municipality has created its own collaborative working tool: the city has officially launched the Local Climate Stakeholders Platform (PLAC). This initiative developed by the city council constitutes a positive example to encourage the local community to take action. The platform is a voluntary participation forum in which partners discuss, share and disseminate information and knowledge to support local action aiming at making Almada’s territory post-carbon and resilient. With PLAC, the city of Almada wishes to bring together stakeholders having relevant knowledge in the fields of energy and climate but also public and private players and the civil society. PLAC is open to the adhesion of three types of partners, between public and private entities, companies and other elements of civil society: Members through concrete actions, seek to reduce emissions within their activities; Advisors, entities with relevant intervention in the field of energy, climate, environment and sustainability, which commit themselves to provide technical advice and disseminate the PLAC; and Ambassadors, for their public notoriety they are the face of PLAC, contributing to its dissemination and promotion, and being a positive example for the local community in the fight against climate change.

No financial resources needed, but a coordination from the municipality and the Local Management Energy Agency of Almada, AGENEAL. Coordination is vital for participatory process: determine routes and educational activities.

The local community is crucial for the definition of Local Climate Change Strategy (LCCS) and implementation of SECAP (Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan). The evidence of success of this initiative is that at the starting point for the PLAC around 70 frontrunners (members from several sectors such as commercial sector, big and small industry, universities, public institutions, PT operators among others) have signed their commitment for action towards the municipal reduction targets.

By involving local communities and stakeholders, it is possible to achieve better results and initiatives within the City Council objectives of GHG emissions reduction – this is particularly important in the case of Almada because the City Council is responsible for only around 5% of GHG emissions in its territory. The constitution of a local forum for strategic planning vastly increases the effectiveness of public policies towards sustainability and has a very high transferability level for other municipalities.