SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 12. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Island Government Council has approved a modification of the assignment to the public company IDECO to increase the budget allocated to the Management Service of the Office of Participation and Environmental Volunteering (OPVA) 2021-2024 by €36,483.72 per year.
This increase will provide the Office with a new job, in this case as a community facilitator, in view of the growing demands and needs to support citizen participatory processes, which will complete the staff of three people who already work in she.
With the incorporation of this job, new initiatives will be launched from the Office, indicated the Minister for Sustainable Development and the Fight against Climate Change, Javier Rodríguez, related to projects aimed at motivating the participatory processes of the Action Plans for the Climate and Sustainable Energy (PACES) of the Covenant of Mayors of the EU.
They will also be allocated to the promotion and revitalization of renewable, citizen and local energy communities, the mobilization of community composting groups and other municipal and island collaborative economy figures in environmental matters and the organization of forums for debate and citizen contribution to environmental management. , as well as commitment to actions aimed at improving the resilience of the island and its preparation for situations of economic, social and environmental crisis.
“In this way, we consolidate a necessary and fundamental offer to citizens to promote sustainable habits, train and inform about processes related to climate change”, added the minister
After the years of operation of the Office of Participation and Environmental Volunteering, the conditions for working on the keys referred to above have been increasingly improved with a notable increase in the associative and participatory fabric in environmental and sustainability matters.
This is reflected in reports that document an increase in the number of volunteers from 2004 to 2021, which has gone from 300 to 6,226, as well as an increase in the number of participating entities, which was 9 in 2004 and in 2021 it was of 86. The annual budget, on the other hand, has gone from 55,400.00 to 160,000 euros in 2021. It is also noteworthy that the Office receives an average of 174 queries per year to obtain information.
This service is closely linked to the 2030 Insular Agenda, mainly to the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), although due to the diversity of purposes it addresses, it could find accommodation in any of the 17 approved by the UN: Goal 1 End of the poverty, Goal 3 Health and well-being; Goal 6 Clean water and sanitation; Goal 7 Affordable and clean energy; Goal 8 Decent work and economic growth; Goal 11 Sustainable cities and communities; Objective 12 Responsible production and consumption; Goal 13 Climate Action; Objective 14 Life Underwater; Objective 15 Life of terrestrial ecosystems; and Objective 17 Alliances to achieve the objectives.