Barcelona Prepares

February 25, 2020 9:30 AM

“ The climate emergency is here, and to tackle it the (Barcelona) City Council has declared the climate emergency with an action plan for 2020-2030, establishing a hundred robust, urgent and effective measures to speed up the way the city adapts to climate episodes in the next few years and mitigate the effects in the short to mid-term.” The Six Part, 563.3 million euro Climate Emergency Plan includes severely limiting traffic, expanded urban green-spaces, and low-carbon municipal food halls.
posted by The Whelk (10 comments total)

This is amazing. I want to roll this up like a newspaper and whack Mayor Tory with it until he gets the message.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:36 AM on February 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

This is a very deep and humane planning document. I don't know how achievable it is, but certainly they are a capable people.

Here's a small snippet from one section that I really like:

1. Take care of everyone.

Improve and adapt the services, facilities and housing of people, especially those most vulnerable to climate change.

Measures:

1.1. Providing support and subsidies for the energy improvement of homes and prioritizing the work on housing of vulnerable families and at risk of social exclusion (annually).
1.2. Promote the figure of the energy agent to advise and accompany the citizenry in the improvement of consumer habits (2020).
1.3. Strengthen mobility services for the most vulnerable neighborhoods and people (public transport, specific mobility services on demand for people with health problems, electric bicing , etc.) (2020).
1.4. Strengthen services for the most vulnerable in Citizen Care Offices (OACs) to help prevent the effects of heat and other extreme weather events (2020).
1.5. Improve the social network of the elderly living alone and strengthen existing projects (links, radars, etc.) and specific actions on vulnerable groups in the telecare service (2020).
1.6. Promote the "School of Cures" , aimed at the continuous training of care professionals and relatives of dependents (2020).
1.7. Study the creation of the Caregiver Card aimed at recognizing the importance of carers, with discounts on public transport and other municipal services (2020).
1.8. Design pilot projects of social superblocks , oriented to the integral service of attention to the dependent people from teams of home care service (2020).
1.9 Adapting and improving health care services to help them cope with the impacts of climate change on health (2025).
1.10. Creating a focus and information space on the economy of care (2025).
1.11. Incorporate climate variables into care by adapting existing services and implementing new ones (2025).
1.12. Facilitate the employment of people in emerging economic sectors linked to the green, supportive and circular economy, especially the most vulnerable, and give the Labora project an environmental vision (2025).
1.13. Rehabilitate homes by improving insulation, replacing obsolete electrical facilities, optimizing contracted power and access to more efficient appliances, and paying special attention to the most vulnerable households (2030).
1.14. Reduce bad odor discomfort by improving waste and sewerage systems in case of heat (2030).
1.15. Extend the implantation of social superblocks throughout the city, expand the services of proximity to dependent groups and strengthen all care services (2030).
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:23 AM on February 25, 2020 [7 favorites]

This is good to see, in comparison with British town councils who like to declare a climate emergency and then announce drastic measures such as "an extra 100m* of cycle lanes" and "free parking for Christmas shoppers".
(*down from 200m because someone complained it would take away too many parking spaces)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:47 AM on February 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

I'd really like my city to adopt this plan, starting yesterday.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:03 AM on February 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

I was just there a few days ago. Parrots are in the palm trees now, and there are summer heatwaves and droughts. They realize it could become unlivable very easily.
posted by pracowity at 11:22 AM on February 25, 2020

Meanwhile, in the U.S. today: U.S. Army Corps Suspends Key Study of NYC Storm Protections

On the other hand List of 159 towns and cities in U.S committed to 100% Renewable Energy

Progress will be uneven but we'll get there. We'll get there. 🙏
posted by gwint at 2:06 PM on February 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

I’m still boggling over municipal food halls. I always wanted to go to Spain and eat mall food.
posted by drivingmenuts at 3:08 PM on February 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is good to see, in comparison with British town councils who like to declare a climate emergency and then announce drastic measures such as "an extra 100m* of cycle lanes"

A council near me recently passed a climate emergency acknowledgement thing, and then immediately went on to the next item: widening roads for private motor traffic.
posted by pompomtom at 3:10 PM on February 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

This is absolutely wonderful, obviously, but I'm really curious to see the knock-on effects. Barcelona is a huge tourist destination, right? Like, I remember reading some things along the lines of how it was going to have to start limiting tourism, or something of the kind, because it was becoming difficult to live there. But when you've got this huge, visible, and actually working plan to limit the effects of the climate emergency and people from all over the world are constantly seeing it, they go home knowing what it feels like to be in a city that's addressing the issue. Things become normalized, and I'm really curious to see if this will start some ripple effects -- in addition to simply providing a document that other places can build on.

(I mean, plenty won't, as this thread shows. And this is on a terribly micro level, but my mother is moving to a suburb where a car is absolutely necessary and it's just...foreign to me. Utterly foreign that someone would choose that right now. But some places will build on this.)
posted by kalimac at 7:57 AM on February 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

This is fantastic! And yes I agree that Barcelona's example will help make such commitments and transformations feel more possible for others. So now we see Copenhagen and Barcelona committing to climate action in very public, visible, comprehensive ways. Others are testing and modeling more discrete changes (SF's waste management program is doing quite well, Stockholm is experimenting with carbon-sequestering bio-waste cycles, etc.). City governments are networking to discuss and share this information with each other as well - and that dialogue is happening more, I think, than one might assume.

Right now, one can actually find shred of hope re: climate change action in the world's cities.
posted by marlys at 8:43 AM on February 27, 2020