The response to climate change cannot be achieved solely through institutions, public policies or businesses, it requires designated spaces where people can understand the challenge that we are facing, recognize their role and discover how they can contribute in their everyday lives.
This exact necessity was expressed in surveys measuring public perceptions about climate change and the clean energy transition by the Basque government. The latest Climate and Energy Index shows that 76% of the public is concerned about climate change. However, this concern is met with feelings of the inability to act in a way that will have impact and the difficulty of converting awareness into decisions and actions in everyday life to combat climate change.
To address this challenge, KLIMA Azoka, ASTEKLIMA, 52 actions against Climate Change and the emissions calculator created for the public have been developed. Amongst these tools and initiatives, KLIMA Azoka stands out for its ability to bring climate change to the public in a comprehensive way through hands-on and entertaining experiences that allow each person to understand that every action taken, regardless of it´s apparent size, counts and adds to individual and collective actions that together can create significant change.
This initiative brings climate education into the spaces where communities come together to learn, celebrate and build a shared identity. To that end, it is present at events in the Basque Country that have the greatest potential to mobilize the public. KLIMA Azoka is also one of the main pillars of the Basque Country’s Climate and Energy Week ASTEKLIMA, an initiative promoted by the Basque Government’s Department of Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability, in collaboration with the public environmental management entity, Ihobe, and the Basque Energy Agency, EVE. ASTEKLIMA is a ten-day long event held each year around 24 October, the International Day of Climate Action.
In little over a week, ASTEKLIMA mobilises public administrations, schools and other educational centres, universities, social organisations, businesses and the public as a whole to showcase climate action and the clean energy transition in everyday life. In the 2025 edition alone, 87 organisations held 138 activities across the Basque Country involving more than 2,700 people in 45 municipalities. Within this context, KLIMA Azoka visits different municipalities as one of the campaign’s main climate awareness and education tools, offering participatory experiences to people of all ages and converting knowledge into action. During the 10-day celebration, schools and other educational centres play a strategic role in KLIMA Azoka. During the school week, they account for a very significant proportion of the overall participation and provide an opportunity to teach climate education to the generations that will both lead our climate future and experience the consequences of the climate transition in the decades ahead.
Outside of the main week, KLIMA Azoka also participates at educational events linked to the promotion Basque immersion education and the values associated with Basque culture (Ibilaldia, Kilometroak and Araba Euskaraz), gatherings of the school community, such as the Basque Public School Festival; family and outreach initiatives promoted by the Basque public broadcaster (Makusi); cultural events celebrating local heritage (Burdin Jaia); and fairs that specialize in sustainability and the climate and energy transition (Berdeago).
The continual presence and visibility of KLIMA Azoka at ASTEKLIMA and at leading educational, cultural and community events in the Basque Country maintains climate education active throughout the year and to reach segments of the public who are regularly underrepresented in environmental programmes. By integrating into spaces associated with Basque, the culture, the heritage, time spent in family, and public participation, climate action becomes viewed as an issue that is present in social life and community as a shared responsibility among everyone.
The experience is organised around seven interactive themed tents addressing key issues in the ecological transition: the causes and consequences of climate change, energy, sustainable habits at home, transportation, leisure time and responsible consumption, soil protection, and the ways in which each person can contribute to solutions within their own sphere of action. Moving away from traditional exhibition formats, KLIMA Azoka uses games, challenges and participatory activities as its main educational tools, promoting active and accessible learning for people of all ages.
Guided by a route defined by a passport of challenges, participants visit the different tents, engage with content tailored to each theme and reflect on the impact of their everyday habits. The route culminates in the identification of personal and collective climate action commitments, turning awareness into active involvement and encouraging genuine behavioural change. The passport extends the experience beyond the visit by helping participants remember what they have learnt, the challenges they have completed and the commitments they have made, enabling reflection on climate action to continue at home.
Thanks to the combination of experiential learning, active participation and follow through on commitments, KLIMA Azoka transcends the traditional one-time awareness campaign and promotes genuine processes of reflection and change. Over 10,000 people have participated in this initiative since its inception in 2023, demonstrating its capacity to reach the public and connect climate action into everyday life. It is worth noting that 45.4% of participants affirm that the experience has influenced their reflection around habits, proving that small individual changes can create significant transformation when looked at as a whole.
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