Barcelona

Spain

Mission city Pilot city
National Mission Ecosystem Spain
Barcelona Mission City Label
Population 5.7 million
City Area 98 km²
City active since June 2022

Barcelona has a long history in the field of climate change mitigation. Regarding mitigation, its origins date back to the Solar Thermal Ordinance and the Energy Improvement Plan of 2002. The most significant milestones were the Barcelona Energy, Climate Change and Air Quality Plan 2011-2020 and the Barcelona Environmental Ordinance (2011), which included the mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its effects as municipal policy objectives, regulating various topics, including solar generation, among others.

 

In 2015, during the COP21 in Paris, the City Council presented the Barcelona Climate Commitment (BCC), promoted by over a thousand companies, civic entities, schools, and institutions associated with the Barcelona+ Sustainable network, signatories of the Citizen Commitment for Sustainability 2012-2022. This declaration reaffirmed the municipal commitments made (Covenant of Mayors on Energy and Adaptation) and outlined Barcelona's roadmap. Three years later, the Municipal Council Plenary approved the Climate Plan 2018-2030, co-produced by hundreds of city organizations, which reinforced existing climate measures and incorporated many others. The Plan received the Covenant of Mayors award for the best initiative from a major city.

Key Learnings

Latest updates from the city

Pilot project spotlight

Spain's Pilot Activity: URBANEW: Multi-stakeholder innovative and systemic solutions for urban regeneration Spain - NetZeroCities

Seven Spanish cities will develop a pilot programme to promote a systemic transformation and ensure that the residential, commercial, public and private building sectors reduce their carbon footprint and become energy efficient. To this end, the cities will mobilise their stakeholders and jointly promote actions to encourage energy rehabilitation and the substitution of construction materials, encouraging the use of local raw materials with a low carbon footprint and promoting the deployment of renewable energies under self-consumption models and energy communities. The planned activities will be tested in seven cities simultaneously, in several climatic and socio-economical contexts. Lessons learned will allow to obtain a complete vision of this pilot, with a deep diagnosis to better understand the barriers and levers to decarbonise the built environment and integrate renewable energies. 

External projects

City involvement in related European initiatives