València will have a European Commission label to attract sustainability-oriented investments

The mayor will also delve into these issues during the conversation of the ‘Valencia Metropolitana’ which will join him to five other mayors in the framework of the València 2030 Urban Forum

The mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, today at the innovation center Las Naves, held an informative breakfast to present the València 2030 Climate Mission and the importance of the choice of the city by the European Commission as one of the 100 smart and climate-neutral cities by 2030. In this breakfast he was accompanied by the councilors of Innovation and Climate Emergency, Carlos Galiana and Alejandro Ramon, as well as the coordinator of Urban Strategies of the City of Valencia, Jordi Peris.

During the meeting it was explained in detail what it will mean for the city to have been chosen by the European Union as one of the 100 cities that will seek to achieve climate neutrality in 2030. And both Mayor Joan Ribó and Innovation Councillor Carlos Galiana have highlighted the importance of València having a European Commission label to attract sustainability-oriented investments.

‘València is two years ahead,’ said the mayor, later explaining that already in 2020 a partnership was signed with 95% of the city’s political groups to implement a mission-based innovation program, where many of the initiatives that Europe is calling for this decision have already been implemented.

As examples, he has cited actions that are already underway as an energy community of an institute in La Malvarrosa that generates its own energy and provides it to disadvantaged families, the use of Next Generation funds for the rehabilitation of 700 homes in low-income neighborhoods or the recovery of green spaces to renaturalize our environment’.

As Ribó explained, we will work in transversal areas because any aspect influences the improvement of current conditions, but what is clear is that the benefits for citizens will include cleaner air, a greener and liveable city and an opportunity to a new economy with job creation of quality’.

Carlos Galiana, Councillor for Innovation, has explained what it will mean to adhere to the Climate Contract that will be signed with the rest of the chosen cities and the European Union. Our commitment is to meet the deadlines and objectives set and also to be transparent with the evolution of the projects and their indicators. Something that Valencia has already done two years with the State of the City Report and with the measurement of numerous aspects that had never been followed up to date’.

He also recalled the importance of networking the alliance will bring. ‘ In a month we have the first meeting in Brussels and we are already working on a digital platform where we meet and exchange information on a constant basis. Collaboration will be essential, because it will allow us to see how to move forward on issues that are not simple while creating an interconnected network that will facilitate achieving the objectives more quickly’.

For his part, Alejandro Ramon, Councillor for Climate Emergency, said that we cannot design the strategy that defines the energy transition of the city alone. That is why we have been working with the five propellers for more than two years to build, at the Energy Transition Table, a roadmap participated in a co-creation space with more than 21 entities from different sectors’.

‘In this sense, he added, the binomial University-City offers a continuous framework of collaboration with the University of Valencia and the Polytechnic University. In this framework, for example, the UPV has committed to decarbonize its Campus of Vera, And very close to there, another key ally in this Mission is l’Horta de València, which has a dual role. First of all, its potential as a solution to climate change, since it allows us to produce food of proximity and season. And also for its contribution to the resilience of the city, making us more independent to import a thing as necessary as food’.

Missions Valencia 2030

The innovation center Las Naves and the Delegation of Innovation and Knowledge of the City of Valencia are responsible for Missions València 2030, a governance model of innovation based on missions that improve people’s lives. This model of governance brings together the entire innovation ecosystem without excluding anyone, because the missions of a city, a country or the whole of Europe are achieved from diversity and with the sum of all the parts, all the talent and all the sources of knowledge.

The Missió Climàtica València 2030 has just been launched, with the aim of turning Valencia into a climate-neutral city and being part of the 100 cities that the European Commission will select within the mission «Smart and climate-neutral cities».