The XXV Expert Workshop of The Participatory Group has released a new video featuring Professor Carmen Esther Falcón-Pérez, lecturer in Financial Economics and Accounting at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, who presents an innovative proposal aimed at promoting urban sustainability through citizen participation.
During her presentation, Falcón highlighted the potential of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) —such as green roofs and façades— to tackle some of today’s most pressing urban challenges, including climate change, public health and the intensifying urban heat island effect. She explained that these green infrastructures can become a strategic tool for improving environmental quality and collective well-being.
A fiscal model to incentivize green infrastructure
The core proposal introduced by the professor consists of an environmental tax incentive system, implemented through reductions in the Property Tax (IBI), aimed at homeowner communities that install and maintain green roofs or façades on private buildings.
The incentive would be proportional to both the green surface created and the investment made, and is conceived as a patrimonial improvement that generates shared benefits: lower urban temperatures, better air quality and increased comfort for residents.
Citizens as key actors in addressing climate change
The initiative also advocates for a new role for citizens in urban transformation. “Citizens cease to be mere recipients of public policies and become key actors in decision-making,” Falcón emphasized.
This approach fosters genuine co-responsibility between local governments and neighborhood communities, which become involved both in green renovation projects and in the participatory processes surrounding them.
Proactive local administration
The model assigns local administrations a fundamental role in supervision and verification. Authorities would be responsible for periodically monitoring the maintenance of the installations and withdrawing the incentive in cases of non-compliance, thereby strengthening a framework of shared governance.
The proposal aligns with international agendas such as the SDGs, the European Green Deal, and the Spanish Urban Agenda, integrating sustainability, participation and responsible fiscal policy.
In the words of the presenter, the logic of the model is simple: “the city returns, through taxes, part of the environmental value that a green roof or façade contributes to the neighborhood as a whole.”
The workshop also featured contributions by María Virginia Gastaldi, Mikel Pagola Tolosa, Guadalupe Plascencia, and Ibelis Holzer.
The full video of the XXV Expert Workshop of The Participatory Group is available at the following link: https://goo.su/WxrjP5U