Barcelona is expected to declare on Wednesday the weather emergency. A statement that different formulas have made or have supported other institutions (Congress, parliaments and the european Parliament and many councils, among them that of Madrid), but that in this case comes accompanied by a plan of concrete measures to reduce pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases that we have worked alongside 200 civic organizations and environmentalists during the last six months.
Precisely what objective the reduction of greenhouse gases is set, and is one of the mysteries of the statement that last the government of the mayor, Ada Colau. And it is also the main demand of the movements for the weather: in a generic, require an annual reduction of 7.5% “as claimed by the scientific community in the last report of the UN”, have noted in a press release; and in particular, that every measure intended to measure the reduction of emissions, a timetable and budget for how to achieve them.
Barcelona has already approved in 2018, a Climate Plan, which provides for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 with respect to the figures recorded in 2005. And in a certain way the statement will be a programme of action on that document, which has received several international awards. The weather emergency will include a broad package of measures: will include a drastic reduction of the mobility by private car, the impact on the generation of solar energy in private buildings (mostly industrial use) and promote the energy rehabilitation of buildings of housing.
But also includes measures more surgical: pacificaciones of school environments or streets of the city, reduction of single plastic use, waste collection door-to-door in some neighborhoods, creating the figure of a responsible for environment in each district, reduce noise pollution, the consumption of meat in the schools, promote the power of proximity, or create climate shelters thinking in waves of heat.
All of this adds to the start-up of the Area of Low Emissions (ZBE) that bars the movement of car pollutants by Barcelona, L’hospitalet de Llobregat, Sant Adrià de Besòs and two other municipalities.
The statement, in addition, include claims to infrastructures that are pollutants but on the Barcelona city Council does not have powers, as are the port and the airport. The government of the mayor, Ada Colau claimed on Tuesday the government begins to collect the tax from the large ships that qualify under the Law of Climate Change. And the airport is required to review its growth plan, because the environmental report that accompanies it is 1999.
