2nd round table on renewable energies: Vitoria-Gasteiz

Round table: Renewable energies in the Basque Country: conflict or solution?

• 📅 Date: 23 March, thursday
• 🏛 Place: Vitoria-Gasteiz, main hall of the Faculty of Arts
• 🕤 Time: from 18:00 to 20:30 hours

As you are well aware, the projects and plans that are appearing these days in the Basque Country to promote renewable energies have generated unrest, heated debates and a certain amount of conflict in different places. The energy and eco-social transition is a task in which it is necessary to think and plan well where and how to establish the infrastructures, in the most democratic way possible, because otherwise, the whole project could be ruined.

The Ekopol research group at the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU) believes that it may be important to make an effort to channel calm and reasonable debates. For this reason, together with EHUgune, we have organised several round tables, trying to synthesise and transfer all the discourses and reflections on the subject.

We have chosen three dates and three places so that as many people as possible have the opportunity to attend. The speakers will have different profiles and opinions on the three occasions.

• The first round table was in Donostia, on 23 February, at 17:30 in the Carlos Santamaria centre (Ibaeta Campus). Here is a small chronicle of the event: Berriztagarrietatik kontsumo aldaketara (Berria)
• The second, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, on 23 March, at 18:00. The event can be seen through this link, and we also have its chronicle: Trantsizioaren korapiloak (Berria).
• The third and final event will be in Bilbao, on 25 April, at 18:00, at the Bizkaia Aretoa.

Soon we will also publish a video and a text collecting the contents of the debates.

Admission is free. To register, please fill in this form.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The speakers who will be in Vitoria-Gasteiz:

Rebeka Gonzalez de Alaiza (Araba Bizirik)

A country woman who works in the care sector. Militant, founder and promoter of several popular movements in defence of the land and feminist movements in Álava: Lamingorriak, Arabako Mendiak Aske, Araba Bizirik; as well as the Euskal Herria Bizirik initiative. She loves nature and is in love with the native forests and the wild creatures that inhabit them. Defender of the rural area and of decentralised decision-making linked to the territory.

Pablo Lorente (Sustrai Erakuntza)

He fought against the Rivera Navarra Thermal Power Plants, was a councillor in Castejón for Izquierda Unida and the UPSC, served and resigned as a member of the IU parliament in Navarra and presides over the Sustrai Foundation. This activist from La Ribera has been living in La Sakana for seven years.

Mikel Otero (EH Bildu)

He began his militancy linked to the environment in the movement against the Leitzaran highway, and his dedication to fracking led him to deepen his knowledge of the energy issue. He has been a firefighter by trade for 20 years. Since 2016 he has been a member of parliament in the EH Bildu coalition and secretary for Ecological Transition.

Aitziber Sarobe (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)

Biologist by training, researcher in ecology. A natural conservationist, she has been a member of the Arkamurka Natural Association since she was very young and is currently a militant member of the Association of Natural and Ecological Groups of Gipuzkoa, Naturkon. She is a lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences (HUHEZI) at the University of Mondragón.