The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) is working on the implementation of a platform so that interested Spanish cities can move towards climate neutrality by 2030 and be more sustainable and liveable. This collaboration and innovation platform, at a national level, will be aimed at providing services to localities to facilitate and accelerate their transition towards sustainability.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) is working on the implementation of a platform so that interested Spanish cities can move towards climate neutrality by 2030 and be more sustainable and liveable. This collaboration and innovation platform, at a national level, will be aimed at providing services to localities to facilitate and accelerate their transition towards sustainability.
To this end, it will develop training, learning and capacity-building initiatives, facilitate citizen participation and activation processes, support and accompaniment to cities in the search for financing formulas and the attraction of financial resources. It will also provide support for the development of local systemic innovation initiatives for the design of transformative mitigation and adaptation project portfolios.
The development of this platform is part of the Horizon Europe Programme, an initiative of the European Commission to accelerate the implementation of the European Green Deal through five lines of action or “missions”.
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION FRAMEWORK
Building on the progress made in recent years within the framework of the citiES 2030 initiative, promoted by the Government of Spain, the platform will incorporate civil society, citizens, the private sector and the university, in order to design and deploy services in a framework of multi-stakeholder collaboration.
This will facilitate synergies and exchange with other pioneering European cities in the field, thanks to the connection of this Spanish platform with the European platform of the European Mission for Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, which is one of the main instruments for putting innovation at the service of the ecological and digital transition of cities.
This Mission aims to involve administrations, citizens, companies and investors to promote 100 European cities to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, also becoming a hub for innovation and experimentation that contributes to all European cities achieving this same goal by mid-century.
In this context, the Government of Spain supports this Mission as a key tool to address the climate emergency from urban environments. Thus, it was a pioneer within the European Union when it came to promoting the creation of a Mirror Group of the Mission of Cities in Spain, which has been working on the joint definition of solutions to support the development of this objective.
SEVEN SPANISH CITIES SELECTED AT EUROPEAN LEVEL
On 25 November, the Commission launched a call for “expression of interest” for European cities to apply to be part of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. The call closed at the end of January, with a total of 377 candidate cities, from all EU Member States and eight associated countries (including the UK and Norway). Among them, there were 25 Spaniards.
The selection process has now concluded, with the announcement of the seven cities invited to be part of the European Mission (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zaragoza), which is a great opportunity for Spain and a recognition of the important work that these cities are doing, strengthening their leadership in climate action.
The seven Spanish cities invited to join the European Mission are part of the citiES 2030 initiative. These cities have already joined this project led by MITECO in order to accelerate the implementation of solutions with social, economic and environmental impact, bringing together public and private efforts for urban transformation.
