Valencia to make three districts climate neutral by 2030

EnergeticsNewsSmart CitiesSocial issues

The City of Valencia has a goal of making three of its districts climate neutral in 2030. This project, budgeted at 31 million euros, has resulted in an expression of interest presented by the City Council to the Government of Spain to opt to receive European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, reports Explica.co.

Mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, said: “The city must be at the forefront of the fight against climate change, a responsibility that I consider unavoidable for younger generations, but also an opportunity to achieve greener and healthier cities where you live better. Our goal is to be one of the 100 climate-neutral European cities by 2030, according to the terms established by the European Commission. In this sense, developing neutral districts would have an extraordinary demonstrative potential in the face of a later scaling up to the whole city”.

In order for districts to become climate neutral, these areas have to achieve a high degree of energy self-sufficiency and zero net emissions of global warming, an objective that is intended to be achieved not only at an energy and environmental level, but also socially and economically.

According to the document prepared by the Consistory, the project offers opportunities as an important saving of emissions and energy, the creation of community awareness and transversality, but also raises difficulties, such as the limited action in areas consolidated by the existing infrastructure, the complexity and size of the project, which makes its execution difficult in the short term, and the existence of “excessively complex” administrative procedures.

Climate-neutral districts have gained special relevance from the definition of the European Mission Climate-neutral and smart cities – 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030: by and for citizens. This Mission seeks to achieve 100 cities approaching climate neutrality by 2030 and, for this, it urges them to work in one or more districts where they can achieve this emission neutrality. Photo Mathieu Militis for Pixabay