The cities of Valladolid, Soria, Zaragoza and Vitoria-Gasteiz have joined the group of Spanish capitals attached to the Climate Neutral Cities in 2030-CitiEs 2030 initiative, following in the footsteps of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, which joined last September 2021.

The cities of Valladolid, Soria, Zaragoza and Vitoria-Gasteiz have joined the group of Spanish capitals attached to the Climate Neutral Cities in 2030-CitiEs 2030 initiative, following in the footsteps of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, which joined last September 2021.

With the signing of this commitment, the councils join the CitiEs 2030 project, which aims to accelerate the energy transition and move towards decarbonised, more sustainable and habitable urban models for citizens, as well as to promote compliance with the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda, also within the development of the European Green Deal.

So far, eight Spanish capitals have committed to this initiative, betting on various projects aimed at reducing emissions. Thus, among these projects, Valladolid seeks climate neutrality in public buildings and in the university. Vitoria-Gasteiz is committed to generating 100% of the electricity for self-consumption of municipal buildings and facilities. For its part, Zaragoza is working on the proposal of “solar neighbourhoods”, which includes solidarity and proximity renewable energy projects. Finally, Soria seeks to assume commitments to the recovery of degraded spaces with nature-based solutions.

To achieve their objectives, the eight member capitals are also committed to promoting innovative forms of collaboration between cities, key actors and sectors, through initiatives with the capacity to transform cities and accelerate the energy and ecological transition. They must also approve goals and chronological milestones and design a roadmap to achieve the decarbonisation and ecological transition of cities, in addition to developing and implementing projects with transformative capacity in cities, with the commitment to incorporate all agents (private sector, academia and civil society together with the different governments).

This initiative is supported by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge within the framework of the CitiEs 2030 programme, which seeks to place Spain at the forefront of climate action by giving a leading role to cities as the main agents of change in the transformation process towards a development model compatible with environmental limits.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE CITIES

Despite covering only 3% of the earth’s surface, cities account for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions despite covering only 3% of the earth’s surface. In addition, many cities are also more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their high population density and location. For this reason, strengthening urban resilience is key to avoiding human, social and economic losses, attributed in some cases to inequalities in social and living conditions.