Occupy Goes Global!

Barcelona

In 2020 OCC! expanded its scope and encouraged students to explore local initiatives in their city, resulting in entries from various locations. Here below you find the entries from Barcelona

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List of experiences: TOTAL RESULTS 2

Barcelona transforms schoolyards into climate shelter

Walter Molinaro

Rising temperatures and the resulting heat waves in urban areas are just one of the effects of climate change. Although rising temperatures do not bring to our mind disastrous events such as hurricanes or floods, it can have serious consequences on human health.

In Europe, extreme heat appears to be a major cause of death in relation to the effects of climate change. Heat waves cause serious damage to people’s health, and the elderly and children are those who suffer mostly from extreme heat events.

Heat waves don’t seem to be “democratic”. Indeed, they do not affect different areas of the city and the populutation in the same way. If the heat waves are mitigated by the presence of green areas, we immediately understand why they are not so democratic. The green areas in cities are not equally distributed throughout the texture of the cities. In most of the cities around the world is possible to notice how the greatest quantity are present in the wealthy neighborhoods.

Consequently, are the poorest neighborhoods that suffer mostly from this effect, further aggravating the situation of the inhabited areas which, often, have less access to green areas and air conditioning.

Many cities are trying to mitigate the urban heats waves through adaptation and mitigation measures. Some local authorities, thanks to a strong institutional support, are able to build innovative solutions capable of answering to several questions at the same time. The city of Barcelona offers a virtuous case with the project “GBG_AS2C – Blue, Green & Gray_Adapting Schools to Climate Change”, which in 2009 won the European urban innovative action (UIA) project to transform eleven schoolyards into climate shelters. The schools adaptation project aims to mitigate the urban microclimate by transforming schoolyards into climate shelters through the implementation of adaptation actions. The new climate shelters in school courtyards will then be opened to the entire population during school closing hours, and in particular in summer months, as neighborhood parks, where anyone can find shelter from urban heat waves but in particular the most vulnerable people identified in the Climate plan of the city as elderly, children and chronically ill.

In the Barcelona case, the innovation is to intervene on schoolyards with a lens on climate adaptation and transform them into climatically comfortable places, generating both a lowering of the urban micro-climate and new public spaces accessible to all.

The possibility of intervening on public schools was introduced with the Climate Plan, approved in 2018, which declares the need to identify and transform public spaces into climate shelters to tackle urban heat waves. The Climate Plan, also, takes in account the theme of climate justice, promoting actions based on a fair distribution of urban quality in the different areas of the city, creating a “climatically just” Barcelona.

In order to understand the different aspects of the project, an analysis was conducted on various official documents in relation to the Barcelona schools adaptation project and the Climate Plan but also through articles on the themes of urban greening and climate justice.

GBG_AS2C – Blue, Green & Gray_Adapting Schools to Climate Change Project

Location: Barcelona, ​​Catalunya, Spain.

Promoters

To tackle heat waves, the Barcelona climate plan, in line of action three–prevent excessive heat–identifies the need to transform public spaces into climate shelters. Schools and their open spaces have been selected as possible spaces of intervention. Based on this indication, the municipality of Barcelona, ​​in collaboration with various local and territorial authorities, builds an innovative solution based on adaptation and mitigation measures.

In 2019, the project was candidate for the European UIA call with the project “GBG_AS2C – Blue, Green & Gray_Adapting Schools to Climate Change “. The project won the competition and was founded by the European project Urban Innovative Action (UIA).

Beneficiaries

The project “GBG_AS2C – Blue, Green & Gray_Adapting Schools to Climate Change”, in accordance with the objectives and visions of the Climate Plan, identifies all citizens as beneficiaries, but with particular reference to the most fragile people who suffer most from the effect of heat waves.

The project, however, also has direct beneficiaries in the school communities, which most experience the spaces of the school. In fact, children, teachers and school staff in general will receive the greatest benefits.

 Engagements with climate change

• Adaptation: creation of green areas and points of water in the schoolyards

• Mitigation: renovation of the energy system of the schools

• Climate Justice: the most vulnerable are placed at the center of the initiative

The GBG_AS2C project is based on the implementation of two measures, two adaptation actions carried out in the open spaces of the schools, and one of mitigation, implemented on the school building.

The adaptation measures are classified into blue and green actions and are intended to create water points, shaded areas, green coats and new gardens that will allow lowering the micro-climate of the area ensuring a greater climatic comfort.

Mitigation initiatives are identified as gray actions and concern the modernization of energy systems with a view to lower consumption and better performance. Although mitigation actions are equally important in contrasting climate change, the adaptation actions will intervene not only on the urban micro-climate but will also have wider repercussions, such as on sociality, when the schoolyards will opened to the entire population.

The Barcelona project, in line with the objectives of the Climate Plan, also takes in account the aspect of climate justice. In order to establish which areas of cities are most affected by extreme heat, various climate analyzes were conducted. The analysis carried out by the Barcelona Region between 2015 and 2017 show how the coolest areas are those located along the coast, while the hottest neighborhoods are those of Les Corts, Eixample Esquerra, Nou Barris and Ciutat Vella. To answer the issue of climate justice, the GBG_AS2C project has developed well-defined criteria to select the pilot schools on which to intervene. In fact, the various criteria include environmental ones aimed at identifying schools located in places most affected by high temperatures, high concentrations of pollution and a lack of green areas. Finally, eleven schools were selected, one for each district.

Figure 1: “Selected schools per Barcelona district” by UIA Project “https://uia-initiative.eu/en/news/adapting-barcelona-climate-change-multicriteria-approach-selection-schools-be-converted”

Objectives

The main objective of the Barcelona project is so described by the proponents: “schools playgrounds will be transformed into climate shelters and be open to the wider public in non-school period” (Uia project, 2020). The general objective of the project is to reduce the effect of heat waves by transforming schoolyards into climatic shelters. Thanks to this transformation, new green areas and new water points will be created that will help lower the urban micro-climate. Once the transformation is complete, the courtyards will be included in the list of climatic shelters in the city and open to the entire population during the closing hours of the school.

The project also has secondary objectives such as promoting a new approach to foster children’s cognitive, social and behavioral development, rising the awareness about environmental problems and organizing course in open spaces of the school. In addition, various meetings have been provided in schools with the aim of informing, communicating and involving not only school users but also the resident population in the neighboring areas. These events aim to raise awareness on climate change, but also to inform the population about the importance of producing adaptation and mitigation actions.

In accordance with the indications of the Climate Plan, the project aims to increase climate justice by implementing actions based on equity.

Finally, there is the goal of further optimizing the participatory process and co-production of the interventions to be implemented. Despite the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impossibility of holding events in person, the co-production meetings were held remotely using the Zoom platform. Net of the opening of the school courtyards, we can say that the structure put in place has led to the desired effects, considering that the school staff, children and parents responded optimally and got involved.

Values

  • Participation
  • Communication
  • Scaling-up
  • Links with other projects of the municipality

The fundamental aspect of the project is certainly the participation and co-production of the actions. Several participatory events were organized with the aim of motivating and involving the school community in the project. Pupils, teachers and parents were able to inform designers about the needs of each school and promote ideas and suggestions.

One of the added values ​​of the project is communication. The objective of the communication plan was to inform about four fundamental aspects of the project: 1) to convey the need to adopt adaptation strategies to climate change, 2) to inform the residents of the areas surrounding the schools on the adaptation of schoolyards, 3) to raise awareness of the school community, 4) to inform about the technical and scientific aspects of the project.

As well as participation and communication, replicability and scaling are two other qualitative aspects of the project. The project proved its potential through the achievement of the goals and the opening of the first eleven adapted school courtyards. Given the potential that emerged, it was decided to intervene on other schools; specifically, the aim is to adapt another 29 schools by 2023.

It is possible to notice a scalarity beyond local borders; in fact “the Province of Barcelona has also recognized the potential of the project and has been promoting the conversion of two schools into small cities in the region, to Climate Shelters” (Cartalis, 2021, p.17)

To broaden the social effects, the project aims to give the population, especially the fragile ones, new green areas where they can find shelter from heat waves. In order to allow the opening of the courtyards to the entire population, the project was included in the “Schoolyards Open to the Neighborhood Program” which allows: “the school grounds open to the neighborhood are school spaces that open to public use for citizenship outside school hours, both at the weekend and during school holidays”. (Ajuntament Barcelona, ​​2020)

Timeline

The project began in the 2019-2020 school year. During the first months of 2020, a preliminary study was carried out for the selection of pilot schools, and mandatory criteria were established in order to decide “the number of schools per district of Barcelona, ​​the type of school and the educational level” (Cartalis, 2020 p.14). As priority criteria, the study considered “the state of environment in the area of ​​the school, the building, the patio and the risk for social exclusion” (ibidem).

Once the preliminary analysis was completed, online meetings were held for each school involving the school community in the co-production of the actions. The works began in June of the same year and finished in three months. The works were scheduled during the summer break so they would not interfere with the school activities.

In 2021, the scale-up phase began aiming to integrate the Climate Shelters project into the wider program “Let’s transform the school yards”. This program aims to transform at least 10 schoolyards per year (Cartalis, 2021).

Visible effects:

  • Physical effects
  • Social effects

The project has brought visible effects in spatial terms by transforming over 1000m2 of cemented soil into permeable areas. The objectives set by the green and blue measures envisaged by the project were achieved through the planting of several trees and the installation of over 20 water points. According to the Ajuntament de Barcelona, “As a result, 1,000 square meters of natural space was regained, with vegetation in playgrounds and the creation of 2,213 square meters of new shade using pergolas and awnings. In addition, 74 trees were planted and 26 new water sources were installed” (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2020)

The photos below show some of the first eleven schoolyards transformed.

Figure 2: “Plantation of trees at the school yard” by “Uia Project” “https://uia-initiative.eu/en/news/barcelona-city-climate-action”

Figure 3: “Barcelona Schoolyard” by Cristina Visconti

As for the social consequences, the project has had greater impacts in the poorest neighborhoods, where clearly the most vulnerable groups suffer the most from heat waves and have less chance of finding shaded areas to shelter. This view is confirmed by Amorim-Maia, Anguelovski, Chu, et al. which declare “adaptation projects are shown to have a greater social impact on poorer neighborhoods, where residents are generally more vulnerable to heat” (2021).

Actors involved:

• Public Health Agency of Barcelona – sectoral agency

• Barcelona Consortium of Education, Barcelona Cycle of Water

• Public Service Provider

• Barcelona Institute for Global Health

• Higher Education and Research Institute

• Institute for Environmental Science and Technology UAB – Higher Education and Research

   Institute

The project for the adaptation of first eleven Barcelona schools was conceived thanks to a strong collaboration between various local and territorial bodies. The municipality of Barcelona was the project leader because of the “extensive experience of the City Council of Barcelona in urban projects (also of environmental and climatic character)” (Cartalis, 2020 p.8) and for the “tradition and experience of the City of Barcelona in participatory processes as developed from other projects” (Ibidem, p.10).

Critical points:

Despite the great value of the climate change adaptation actions proposed by the project and the value of fair distribution, it would have been even more productive to select schools only in neighborhoods where there was a greater need to install the new climate shelters.

Figure 1 shows that two of the eleven selected pilot schools are located in privileged neighborhoods. This consideration does not jeopardize the value of the project; nonetheless, the criteria for selecting schools could be better re-designed, concentrating all the resources on the most vulnerable and marginalized neighborhoods.

Another criticality is linked to the high technical dimension of the proposed interventions. One of the greatest risks is that it is not possible to maintain the technical solutions implemented, both due to the lack of skills of the schoolyards managers and the high costs to be incurred. An example could be that relating to blue solutions, which, as Cartalis (2021) states, require “high maintenance costs”.

Finally, there is a critical point relate to the specifics of the selection announcement for schools. In the first call only primary schools were allowed. But with the upscaling project the inclusiveness of the project has increased since the new call has been opened to all schoollevels.

Replicability

The initiative responds to the proposed objectives and it is replicable, creating more and more climate shelters in schoolyards, thereby making schools one of the engines for adapting to climate change in the city. Intervening on schools to implement adaptation and mitigation to climate change has proved to be an innovative solution. Several cities are thinking about the transformation of schoolyards into neighborhood parks at the service of the entire population.

Schools become important for their distribution and capillarity on the urban texture, which appears to be similar in all European cities. This means that the reasoning on schools as the new green areas of the neighborhood can be replicated and implemented in different cities. With this statement, however, we do not want to propose a “one size fits all” solution. It is known that there are no actions that can be applied in same manner everywhere and there will always be a need to contextualize the intervention based on the context of the place.

Various scholars have argued that schools can play a key role in contrasting the negative effects of climate change. Barò et al. (2021) state that “tree cover in schoolyards or the number of street trees around schools are directly related to urban cooling benefits.” Palestino et al. (2020) declare that “schools can therefore be strengthened and networked to collaborate in the rebalancing of urban metabolism and the quality of neighborhood life”1 (Author’s translation)

Conclusions

The “GBG_AS2C” initiative is a good example of planning to tackle the effects of urban heat waves. There are several added values ​​of the project that make it worthy of attention. The major added values ​​of the project are the participatory and co-production processes leading to the actions and the replicability and scalability of the project.

The implementation of the project was made possible thanks to the good management of the municipality, with a strong tradition of participatory actions and community involvement.

The initiative has led to the creation of new open spaces accessible to all, which bring benefits not only to the school communities that most experience the new climate shelters, but also to the population as a whole, paying attention to the most disadvantaged.

The initiative implemented by the municipality of Barcelona led to think about the importance of involving schools in climate planning processes, expanding the range of possible solutions to tackle the negative effects of climate change. When the scale-up phase is over, it will be possible to further analyze the role of the new climate shelters in relation to the mitigation of the urban micro-climate. It will be interesting to analyze the results achieved in the new “Let’s transform the school yards” program.

Given the effectiveness of adapting schoolyards, the question to ask could be: what will be the next public space where to intervene for tackling climate change and create new climate shelters?

References

1. “Climate Plan”, Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2018, Area of Urban Ecology, Barcelona City Council, at:https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelona-pel-clima/sites/default/files/documents/climate_plan_maig.pdf, [last accessed date: 24 February 2022].

2. “School greening: Right or privilege? Examining urban nature within and around primary schools through an equity lens”, Barò et al., (2021), Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 208, 104019, ISSN 0169-2046.

3. “Reinventare le scuole come hub di rigenerazione socio-ecologica. Una ricognizione sulle potenzialita’ degli spazi aperti degli istituti superiori di Napoli”, Palestino M. F., Amore M. P., Cuntò S., & Molinaro W., (2020), Bollettino Del Centro Calza Bini, 20(1), 181-196. https://doi.org/10.6092/2284-4732/7550

4. “The Climate Shelters project Journal N° 1”, Cartalis C, (2020), Urban Innovative Action, https://www.uia-initiative.eu/sites/default/files/2020-05/Barcelona_GBGAS2C_Journal.pdf, [last accessed date: 17 February 2022].

5. “The Climate Shelters project Journal N° 2”, Cartalis C, (2021), Urban Innovative Action, https://uia-initiative.eu/en/news/climate-shelters-journal-2-update-barcelonas-project, [last accessed date: 19 February 2022].

6. “The social return of the school yards open to the neighborhood and of the school roads is evaluated”, Ajuntament de Barcelona, https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/tempsicures/en/noticia/the-social-return-of-the-school-yards-open-to-the-neighborhood-and-of-the-school-roads-is-evaluated, [last accessed date: 20 February 2022].

7. “Upscaling with a vision – The school yard as a school”, Cartalis C, (2021), Urban Innovative Actions, https://uia-initiative.eu/en/news/upscaling-vision-school-yard-school, [last accessed date: 21 February 2022].

8. “Eleven schools turned into climate shelters”, Ajuntament de Barcelona, (2020), https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/relacionsinternacionalsicooperacio/en/noticia/eleven-schools-turned-into-climate-shelters_988451, [last accessed date: 24 February 2022].

9. ”Intersectional climate justice: A conceptual pathway for bridging adaptation planning, transformative action, and social equity”, Amorim-Maia A. T., Anguelovski I., Chu E., Connolly J., (2022), Urban Climate, Volume 41, 101053, ISSN 2212-0955, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.101053

10. “Journal No. 3 The “final mile” of the Climate Shelters project: communication, evaluation and replication”, Cartalis C., (2021), Urban Innovative Actions, “https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/news/journal-no-3-final-mile-climate-shelters-project-communication-evaluation-and-replication#5-summing-up-the-main-aspects,  [last accessed date: 17 April 2022].

BARCELONA COMMITS TO CLIMATE BREAKDOWN: The city’s Climate Plan and Declaration of Climate Emergency

Vittorio Giordano

‘This is not a drill – Climate emergency declaration’. Frame from the video ‘This is not a drill’ – author: Barcelona City Council. Licence CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 ES.

Location:

Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain

Promoters:

In 2015the network ‘for a more sustainable Barcelona’, with the citizen-led initiative ‘Barcelona’s Commitment to Climate Change’1, promoted the drafting of a comprehensive initiative to face the climate breakdown. The process of development was driven by the Citizen Council for Sustainability, with an open, participatory process. The document was coproduced with the City Council and the network ‘for a more sustainable Barcelona’, while members of the public also contributed through the online platform Decidim.

The Climate Plan was approved on 26 October 2018.

On 15 January 2020, the city of Barcelona declared the climate emergency to step up the actions developed in the climate plan. The content of the declaration was produced by the Climate Emergency Committee, together with the City Council, the Citizen Council for Sustainability, and many citizens from different organizations.

Video: ‘This is not a drill – Climate emergency declaration’– author: Barcelona City Council – available at: https://www.barcelona.cat/emergenciaclimatica/en/this-is-not-a-drill  (Licence CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 ES.)

Beneficiaries:

The plan claims to prioritize people and their well-being, it acknowledges the unequal vulnerability and distribution of hazards across the population and the fact the most vulnerable subjects are expected to increase due to climate change. The climate justice perspective adopted puts such people at the centre of the initiative and make them the first beneficiaries by addressing their socio-economic situation in order to improve life standards in the face of the climate crisis. The plan guarantees energy rights for all, preventing cuts of supplies. It recognizes the right to decent housing and sets subsidies and grants for house renovation, it strengthens the care services for vulnerable people and helps providing employment. In addition, clean air, green public spaces, shadow shelters, access to water, improved mobility services and a more resilient city to hazards such as floods, heat waves, droughts or fires will be beneficial for every citizen.  Biodiversity in the city will benefit as well from the expansion green areas and corridors.

Engagement with climate change:

The initiative is built around for pillars:

  • Mitigation: to reduce the city’s contribution to climate change by abating greenhouse gas emissions and change the current unsustainable way of consumption.
  • Adaptation and resilience: to diminish the city’s vulnerability to climate change, making it more resilient and prepared to face its effects, by taking care of people, environment, and water resources.
  • Climate Justice: the more vulnerable are put at the centre of the initiative actions by addressing the unequal distribution of negative impacts between districts, generations, classes, and genders.
  • Collective Action: to include individual citizens and social bodies by creating a space of expression and contribution to the plan both in the decision and in the implementation phase.

Values

As it can be read in the Climate Plan, the values of the initiative focus on a sustainable city, which is envisaged to be:

  • Healthy: promoting active living, clean air, quality public spaces and green areas, people’s health, and well-being.
  • Socially fair: the social, economic, gender, territorial and cultural diversity of its citizens is to be considered in any future change.
  • Safe and Habitable: the spaces of everyday life must be comfortable, friendly, safe for everyone to foster social cohesion.
  • Low-carbon and distributive: energy production, services and consumption are not dependent anymore on fossil fuels, economic benefits are distributed fairly.
  • Efficient and renewable: mobility must become sustainable; resources must be used circularly.
  • Participative: encouraging participation with spaces where people can express opinions and contribute; information and knowledge are spread widely across the city.

The Emergency Declaration shifts the focus to the urgency and complexity of the challenge to face. It advocates for an ambitious and drastic rethinking of every aspect of the city and of the production-consumption systemto transform an unsustainable and unfair economic model. It emphasizes values such as ‘shared care work and fraternal or sisterly relations with other human beings, other living beings and ecosystems, in private, public and community spaces.’2. The city is recognized as a major contributor to the crises, but also as a place where big opportunities to face it rise.

Climate justice is the fundamental perspective of the initiative. It acknowledges that the vulnerability to climate change is not equally spread across the city, but it follows age, gender and income disparities which are correlated with higher energy and food poverty, lower life expectancy and health results. Given that social inequalities are enhanced by climate emergency, the call for more effort is addressed towards those more responsible for the crises, in order not to burden those who already suffer from the unfair distribution of negative impacts.

Finally, the declaration asks to other cities, states and every economic sector to be more ambitious in the targets set, it invites to form alliances and it demands for political coherence, while keeping at its centre the inclusion of city residents through processes of co-production.

City Hall facade illuminated in green with the slogan “Walk, pedal, bus, subway towards the city we want” Author: Clara Soler Chopo. License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Objectives:

The Climate Plan establishes measures to achieve the following targets by 2030:

  • Reduce the levels of CO2 emissions per capita by 45% compared to those of 2005.
  • Increase the urban green space by 1.6 km2.
  • Achieve a domestic consumption rate of potable water lower than 100 litres per resident, per day.
  • Obtain 100% clean funding.
  • Reduce energy poverty to zero.
  • Promote collaborative citizen projects by allocating €1.2 millions in subsidies.

In addition, Barcelona intends to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The climate emergency declaration steps up the action by setting a more ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, compared to the levels of 1992, by 2030. Accordingly, the initiative proposes seven model changes:

  • Change of urban model: increment of the urban green space throughout the city, more efficient buildings, a transformation of public space for social use, a development of sustainable and collective modes of mobility and the avoidance of biodiversity loss.
  • Change of mobility and infrastructure model: it embraces a reduction of GHG emissions from the whole sector of transports, an improvement of traffic conditions and public transport, more space for pedestrians, a limitation of private vehicles and a more rational use of port and airport infrastructures.
  • Change of energy model: it will require a rational and efficient use of energy, an enhancement of self-generation and self/shared consumption, more investment to replace fossil fuels and nuclear power plants with renewable energies.
  • Change of economic model: to a digital and circular one, which is fairer, more sustainable, capable of generating better quality employment without fostering inequalities. Incentives, climate taxation, accounting for environmental costs and making tourism more sustainable are among the actions considered.
  • Change of consumption and waste model: to one based on needs. Here the target is reaching zero waste, by using materials in loops and promoting a different consumption culture.
  • Change of food model: into a sustainable and local one, which supports ecological food products, farmers, urban and peri-urban agriculture, while structurally reducing food waste. Fundamental will be improving the accessibility to food and promoting a dietary change.
  • Change of cultural and educational model: this involves education on all levels, cultural activities, involvement and cooperation between citizens, organizations, municipal bodies, promotion of climate actions and empowerment of young people.

Each of these has specific lines of action that can be found in the respective document2,3.

Timeline:

The climate plan was established in 2018 and the climate emergency declaration became effective in 2020. They both set targets for 2030 on the path for Barcelona to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Visible Effects:

Since the approval of the initiative, a series of actions have been developed by the City Council and residents, among these:

  • Travelling exhibition ‘Barcelona responds to the climate emergency’4
  • Refuge Schools: it contains measures such as building water points, spaces for shade and vegetation and improving insulation of buildings, to be applied in schools.
  • Climate Emergency Marathon: Focused on minimizing water and energy consumption and waste production in specific buildings.
  • Green Rooftops: it promotes vegetation-covered rooftops.
  • Farmers Markets: aimed to create spaces for the direct sale of seasonal, fresh, local products.
  • Environmental Classrooms: spaces that offer information and education, organize visits and workshops, promote environmental and sustainability culture.
  • Energy Advice Points: they offer information on how to reduce energy consumption.
  • Superblocks programme5
  • Low Emissions Zone6: area where restrictions on the most polluting vehicles are applied.
  • Women and Climate7

Forum Photovoltaic panel – Author: AL PHT Air Picture TAVISA. Can Cadena Urban Garden – Author: Equip Audiovisuals. Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Monitoring measures are applied to see the progresses towards each target. Unfortunately, the results have been updated before 2018, when the plan was not drafted yet. The only available are:

  • 100% of funding requested in 2018 is clean, as the target set.
  • 200.000 allocated in subsidies for 11 citizen projects in 2018, plus €200,000 allocated for a new call for applications in 2020. (The target is €1.2 million by 2030).

(A special Climate Emergency Monitoring report from July 2020 is available only in Catalan8).

Actors involved:

The main body involved is the City Council: its composition and members can be found at: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/en/municipal-organisation/

The ‘Ecology, Urban planning, Infrastructure and Mobility’ area of the City Council, which organisation chart can be accessed here: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ecologiaurbana/en/about-us/organisation-chart#

The main bodies involved are the Network ‘For a More Sustainable Barcelona’ and the Citizen Council for Sustainability. The first includes many organizations such as schools, universities, citizens and professionals associations, companies and businesses; the City Council is also a member.

The second is a consultative and participatory city body working on sustainability-related projects, its members can be found at: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ecologiaurbana/en/bodies-involved/citizen-council-for-sustainability/members

Citizen are active participants as well.

Limits:

By being partly a municipal initiative, it is subject to institutional limits. New priorities could move it to background (e.g. the pandemic), or political conflicts and power relations could affect the process. To give an example, in 2019 the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that the Climate law set by the Government of Catalonia, in 2017, was unconstitutional. It declared that Catalonia does not have the power to project the energy transition or to set emission reduction targets, it overturned the ban on fracking and opposed the goal to close nuclear power plants.

In addition, the initiative could be opposed by who may see such changes as economically inconvenient, such as companies working in the sectors of tourism, agribusiness, real estate, vehicles, flights or fossil fuels. Lobbying action could limit, slow down or even stop the process as such entities are powerful and very influential on economy and politics.

Critical Points:

The project is at its early stages so there are no visible shortcomings yet. Critical points can arise from the actions projected, even though it is not clear how these will be implemented. If not planned appropriately with a systemic view, they could simply lead to burden shifting and externalization of hazards, instead of an effective change. Processes as gentrification and green fixes could also occur, producing exclusion and marginalisation. Such a profound transition will affect the entire society, it could face popular opposition and it could foster inequalities. The focus on people and the climate justice perspective adopted, however, could be effective in preventing such outcomes.

Furthermore, resources will be needed to achieve such transformation, and this could even lead to increasing consumption and emissions in the early stages of the process.

Replicability

Every municipality, city, region, or state can adopt plans like Barcelona’s. Even if this is already happening on different scales, a lot more can be done. The process is even slower for Emergency Declarations since these implicate profound commitment to the cause.

Is this initiative conducive to broader changes?

The initiative modifies institutional arrangements, urban and social paradigms. Some of the actions includes aims to change existing laws or write new ones to reach the targets set.

Materials:

  1. ‘For a more Sustainable Barcelona’ Network, Barcelona City Council, (2015), Barcelona’s Commitment To Climate Change, available at: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ecologiaurbana/sites/default/files/Barcelona%20Commitement%20to%20Climate.pdf , [last accessed date: 16 October 2020].
  2. Climate Emergency Committee, Barcelona City Council, (2020), This is not a drill, available at:https://www.barcelona.cat/emergenciaclimatica/sites/default/files/2020-07/Climate_Emergency_Declaration_en.pdf , [last accessed date: 16 October 2020].
  1. Barcelona City Council, Travelling exhibition: Barcelona responds to the climate emergency, last access date 16 October 2020, <https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelona-pel-clima/en/travelling-exhibition-barcelona-responds-climate-emergency>.
  2. Barcelona City Council, Superilles, last access date: 16 October 2020, <https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en>.
  3. Area Metropolitana de Barcelona, ZBE, last access date: 16 October 2020, <https://www.zbe.barcelona/en/index.html>.
  4. C40 Cities, Women4climate, last access date: 16 October 2020, <https://w4c.org/>.
  5. Climate Emergency Committee, Barcelona City Council (2020), informe de seguiment de l’emergència climàtica, Available at: https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelona-pel-clima/sites/default/files/emerg_clim_informe_juliol_16_07_201.pdf, [last access date: 16 October 2020].
  6. Area of Urban Ecology. Barcelona City Council, Monitoring the measures for taking on the climate emergency, last access date: 16 October 2020, < https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelona-pel-clima/en/barcelona-responds/monitoring-measures-taking-climate-emergency >.
  7. Area of Urban Ecology. Barcelona City Council, Barcelona facing climate change, last access date: 16 October 2020, <https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelona-pel-clima/en>.
  8. Area of Urban Ecology. Barcelona City Council, Ecology. Urban Planning, Infrastructures and Mobility, last access date: 16 October 2020, < https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ecologiaurbana/en>.
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