Third JUSTGREEN Partnermeeting in Murcia
On March 6 and 7, 2025, Murcia hosted the third JUSTGREEN partner meeting, bringing together partners to reflect on their second stakeholder meetings, discuss policy improvements, and explore Murcia's innovative approaches to urban greening and resilience. The meeting began with a warm welcome from Deputy Mayors Mercedes Bernabé and José Guillén, followed by an ice breaker session for new participants.
Stakeholder Reflections and Policy Improvements
A significant portion of the first day was dedicated to partners sharing reflections from their second local stakeholder meetings. The partners shared who participated, the hot topics discussed and planned follow-up of the stakeholder meetings. It was very nice to learn that many partners had active meetings with their stakeholders, visiting important projects in their city as input for their joint work, or even actually planting trees or bulbs together. Cities that decided to stick to a meeting room for their second stakeholder meeting were inspired to organise their third meeting in a different, more active and inspiring way.
Next on the agenda was a discussion on policy improvements, exploring what Interreg Europe expects regarding implementation of new projects, governance improvements, and policy content enhancements. Interactive table talks in smaller groups connected these concepts to partners' specific policies and activities, with the three topics data, incentives and qualitative green spaces. These topics were chosen based on input from previous meetings and interviews conducted by Erasmus University.
After the table discussions the researchers from Erasmus University shared insights from the in-depth city interviews that they conducted in the past 3 months in order to highlight differences and commonalities among partners' approaches to inclusive green policies. They presented their first early findings from data that they still we’re busy analysing. Therefore, the participants were challenged to find and reflect on conclusions they thought were wrong and write them on post-its. This led to a lively conclusion.
Climate Shelters in Murcia and Shaded Schools Program
The morning program concluded with a very nice lunch at the Palacio Almudí where the partners enjoyed a nice buffet amongst beautiful art work honouring International Women’s day celebrated on the 8th of March. After this wonderful lunch the colleagues from Murcia presented the key elements of their "climate refugees" program, which establishes cooling centres in existing public buildings. Murcia is already experiencing climate conditions that may represent the future for many European cities, the hosts shared their approach to protecting vulnerable residents who cannot escape to cooler coastal areas during dangerous summer heat waves. Since the partner meeting took place during the end of winter towards the beginning of spring, there were no signs of heat yet therefore, the heat shelters were not active yet. Moreover, the weather had been quite un Murcia like with very heavy rain fall.
After the presentation the group went outside for a walk through some of the city's areas that reach the most critical temperatures in summer to discuss mitigation challenges on-site. Especially the partners that are familiar with high temperatures had critical questions. Finally the partners visited a school site where implementation was still in progress. The partners got an unofficial preview of the project, as it is not completely finished yet. The initiative aims to tackle the challenge of heat management in schoolyards, creating cooler outdoor spaces for children.
Murcia Rio Project
The next and final day the partners explored the Murcia Río Project, a key green-blue infrastructure initiative revitalizing the Segura River and its surroundings. This project addresses the historical division the river created in the city, with the south side traditionally receiving fewer resources. The visit highlighted how Murcia transformed the riverbanks into vibrant public spaces with green areas, pedestrian and cycling paths, and shaded rest areas. Discussions during this visit focused on the participation process, gentrification concerns, urban connectivity, climate adaptation, and heat mitigation. The project exemplifies how nature-based solutions can reshape a city's relationship with its water resources.
Monitoring Technology and Planning Ahead
The meeting concluded with partners discussing the most valuable elements from Murcia's good practices, identifying priority topics for future good practice exchanges, and planning concrete steps for the next six months. Partners also considered how these learnings relate to the policies they aim to change.
The Murcia meeting underscored the value of sharing good practices and learning from each city's unique experiences, reinforcing the project's collaborative spirit in creating more inclusive and just green policies across Europe.