Located on the south bank of the river Tagus, opposite Lisbon, Almada City Council is one of 18 municipalities within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with 180,000 permanent residents living in an area of 72 km2. Despite being mostly urban, Almada still manages to preserve 25% of its territory as a natural protected area of great richness and biodiversity. Almada signed the Paris City Hall Declaration during the COP21 climate conference in 2015, committing to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050.
Almada is working to develop a local energy community. The PLAC (Local Climate Platform for Almada) is a voluntary participation forum in which stakeholders discuss, share and disseminate information and knowledge to support local action to contribute to decarbonization. It will address the gap between the municipality’s commitments (especially the 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050) and the responsibility of the community as whole, without whom the targets are unachievable as the City Council itself is responsible for only 5% of greenhouse gas emissions in its territory.
The first participants in PLAC are some 70 members from sectors including commerce, large and small industry, universities and public institutions who have committed to take action towards the overall municipal targets and will develop the PLAC together in a participative approach. The first step will be to build the conceptual framework for the local energy community, combined with investments in municipal buildings such as schools.
For more information visit:
https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/good-practices/item/4057/plac-local-climate-stakeholders-platform/
To learn more of Almada's climate action projects visit:
municipalpower.org/articles/almada-on-the-way-to-becoming-a-low-carbon-role-model/
