barcelona, a city committed to the environment...barcelona, a city committed to the environment...

Barcelona environmental report

2009

Barcelona, A City Committed to the Environment

Executive Summary

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Barcelona, A City Committed to the EnvironmentBarcelona environmental report, 2009 · Executive Summary

The present work consists of an executive summary of the Barcelona Environmental Report 2009. A city committed to the

environment, prepared for the call to European Green Capital of the European Commission. This summary gives a complete vision of the environmental performance of the city of Barcelona in recent years and of its future projects.

The European Green Capital Award was created in 2008 by the European Commission with the aim to acknowledge the efforts made by cities in environmental matters and to foster their commitments to the future in favour of sustainability (see http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/index_en.htm for further information).

Barcelona has entered the third edition of this contest, together with 17 other cities, seeking to become the European Green Capital for the year 2012 or 2013. In order to assess the bids, the European Commission has defined an exhaustive questionnaire in which it requests detailed information, with a limited length in words, on specific environmental indicators, on measures carried out in recent years in certain fields, and on goals and projects for the future.

Due to the aforementioned conditioning factors, the information provided here refers to the behaviour of the city as a whole, regardless of the body promoting the described actions, and it does not include all the city’s environmental aspects but rather those on which questions have been posed in particular and which the European Commission considers significant and of current interest.

Despite this strict compliance with the conditioning factors that have been established, we believe that this report has a value that goes beyond the bid, providing a quite complete view of the city’s environmental behaviour, which is especially useful as a source of basic information.

September 2010,Environment DepartamentBarcelona City Council

Introduction

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Barcelona is a dense, compact city. A festive city with a thriving tourist industry, it is sub-arid as well as enclosed topographically. All these are ob-jective conditions that by no means help to make good environmental management here an easy task. As a result, making Barcelona a European reference in terms of the environment represents a considerable challenge.

Though not quite a megalopolis, Barcelona is a metropolis of considerable proportions. Restricting ourselves to the central city, that is, the municipality of Barcelona, itself little less than the entire conurbation, we are speaking of a population of 1,621,537 (2009) packed into just 100.4 km2, which gives a population density of 16,000 inhabitants per km2. Much of this area is clearly mountainous, to the extent that the city has long occupied all the flat space that is reasonably available. The mountains and the sea are great attractions, but also place serious spatial constraints on the city. It is not easy to manage the environmental conflicts that this state of affairs generates. Moreover, much of the population arrived here as part of successive migratory waves, and this has led to surges in demand for housing and services that are by no means compatible with harmonious management of the urban environment. Fortunately, though, Cerdà’s rationalist and generous Eixample district, despite the penny-pinching interpretations that the original plans have often suffered, ensures that our city enjoys the benefits of a modern, highly functional basic fabric.

Barcelona City Council’s decided commitment to building a sustainable city, combined with our citizens’ whole-hearted devotion to helping to conserve the environment, have enabled our city

to manage the environment more successfully than other European capitals that are both smaller in size and less complex in terms of environmental conditions. Barcelona has not only overcome the challenges, but has transformed them into opportunities to advance towards a more efficient and sustainable model. Barcelona is now seeking to become a decarbonised economy, a city that may be dense, but which is capable of renewing itself and designing new, quality public spaces, a city able to adapt to climate change. Ours is a city that leaves space for nature and biodiversity, that seeks to achieve greater comfort as regards noise, a city that accommodates great urban activity and is working with every passing day to improve air quality, to minimise waste generation and to improve management. In short, a city that is becoming more and more committed to the environment.

Proofs of this commitment are the advances made in the city’s environmental management in recent years. By promoting an urban structure that is based on diversity, compactness and complexity, Barcelona has successfully positioned itself amongst the western cities with the lowest

Summary

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per capital greenhouse gas emissions (less than 4 tonnes). Moreover, its commitment to a new energy culture has enabled our city to pursue its activities more efficiently, proactively promoting renewable energy and self-generating 75% of the electricity it consumes.

Additionally, through the promotion of sustainable mobility mesures, 80% of the journeys made within Barcelona are by public transport, on foot or by bicycle. As a result of the policies implemented and growing social awareness, water consumption in Barcelona has been reduced by 15% since the year 2000. This growing environmental awareness has also been instrumental in increasing the proportion of waste that is sorted at source by 188% since the year 2001. As regards urban greening and biodiversity, moreover, the total green area in the city has increased by 150% over the last 30 years;

on this point, it is to be highlighted that Barcelona has 153,000 street trees all over the city. This urban green also provides a habitat for a large diversity of fauna: more than 100 species of vertebrates.

The starting-point for all these environmental advances is the Barcelona Agenda 21, a sustainable action plan for the city that places considerable emphasis on the social dimension and on citizen participation (nearly 640 organisations have already voluntarily signed the Citizen Commitment to Sustainability).

This executive summary gives an overview of environmental action in the city of Barcelona in recent years, as well as providing a glimpse of future projects.

The distance traveled should be a boost to move forward in each one of these fields.

Summary

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Block 1. THE LOCAL CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGEbarcelona, a city committed to combating climate change

Present situation

• For over a decade now, Barcelona has acted decisively to meet the challenges posed by climate change, implementing ambitious urban policies aimed at reducing the city’s global environmental impact. Climate change mitigation and energy management are priorities in the city’s political agenda. Moreover, for some years now, Barcelona has led a lobby representing the local sphere whose aim is to secure recognition of the key role that cities play in the fight against climate change.

• Barcelona is one of the western cities with the lowest per capita greenhouse gas emissions (less than 4 tonnes/inhabitant) thanks to its promotion of an urban structure that is diverse, compact and complex.

Measures promoted

• Reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency and use of the renewable energy resources available: these are just some of the actions that Barcelona pursues in order to combat climate change, a commitment underlined when the city signed the Covenant of Mayors, an energy and climate initiative launched by the European Union.

• Self-generation of 75% of the city’s electricity consumption and promotion of renewable energy. Solar thermal energy is the RES whose generation has most grown in the city (with an average increase of 7,539 m2/year of installed surface over the 1999-2008 period). Moreover, there are at present 30 municipal buildings installed with photovoltaic systems, generating a total of 2,039 GWh electricity per year and avoiding emissions of 219.3 tonnes of CO2.

• Establishment of a municipal instrument for measuring and monitoring greenhouse gas emissions generated by different sectors in the

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city. The information provided by this instrument is published regularly in the publication El Comptador (“The Meter”).

• Use of waste to generate energy. The waste generated in Barcelona is treated at several facilities in and around the city, with energy generated at the Sant Adrià del Besòs energy recovery plant, several organic waste mechanical biological treatment plants (Ecoparks) and the Vall d’en Joan licensed landfill.

• Approval of the first solar thermal local ordinance in the world in 1999.

• Implementation of the Barcelona Energy Improvement Plan (2002-2010), updated by the Barcelona 2011-2020 Plan for Energy, Climate Change and Environmental Quality. A key element here is the Municipal Building Energy Saving and Improvement Plan (PEMEEM), which sets the target of cutting energy consumption in municipal facilities by 2,355 tonnes CO2eq/year.

• Improved management of public lighting in the city through the Barcelona Lighting Improvement Plan. In recent years, the number of lamps installed has risen, whilst energy consumption has been reduced by more than 3.7 GWh per year.

• Innovation and energy diversification in vehicles by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles, greening the public vehicle fleet and experimenting with the use of hydrogen as a fuel. More specifically, most of the street cleaning and refuse collection fleet will use alternative fuels under the new 2009-2017 contract.

• More efficient electricity generation and heating and cooling supply from the new Zona Franca – Gran Via de l’Hospitalet Energy Generation Plant.

Block 1. THE LOCAL CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL CLIMATE

CHANGE

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Block 2. LOCAL TRANSPORTbarcelona, a city of pedestrians that successfully resolves the mobility needs for six million journeys every day

Present situation

• Barcelona promotes sustainable mobility in order to minimise the impact generated by the transport sector, which is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions. The priority objectives are to move towards more equitable distribution of the public space, redressing the balance in favour of sustainable transport modes, traffic calming and reducing energy consumption generated by private vehicles.

• Barcelona’s citizens get around, in the main, by public transport, on foot and by bicycle (80% of journeys), only 20% by private transport.

• Some 35.16% of journeys are made by public transport every day. Over the last few years, thanks to such measures as tariff integration, increased metro and bus services, extension of operating times, etc., the number of travellers using public transport has increased by 24.9%. Moreover, over the last 8 years, metro services have been increased by 36% (places/km) and bus services by 4%.

Measures promoted

• Promotion of travel by non-motorised transport modes, applying measures to reorganise and improve public spaces, such as: road calming, establishment of pedestrian and reverse priority zones, pavement widening, introduction of school routes, etc.

• Commitment to promoting bicycle use, manifested both in investment in infrastructure (new bike lanes, which have increased by 35.17% in the last five years, and more cycle parking facilities) and in the launch of Bicing, the city’s public cycle hire scheme. These measures have helped to generate a change in attitudes in the city; until recently, there was no cycling tradition here, but an average of 100,000 journeys by bicycle are now made here every day.

• Improved energy performance of new metro rolling stock.

• Regulation and containment of vehicle use, reducing vehicles per kilometre by 3% over the last five years, as well as improving traffic density

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by 4%. This has been achieved by introducing such measures as: car sharing; the Green Zone parking scheme (traffic in the regulated areas has been reduced by 13% since this scheme was introduced); and more rational car use (promotion of ecodriving methods).

• Coordinated application of mobility management strategies for people and goods, promoting a transversal sustainable mobility model through the Barcelona Metropolitan Region 2006-2012 Mobility Master Plan (PDM).

• Promoting safe, sustainable, equitable and efficient mobility through the 2006-2012 Urban Mobility Plan (PMU).

• Promotion of the LIVE (Logistics for the Implementation of Electric Vehicles) project, an initiative aimed at meeting emissions targets established by the EU. This project provides for the introduction of 378 municipal electric vehicles, including 261 under the new cleaning contract, and 2,000 private electric vehicles in the city by the year 2012.

• Promoting modal change from the private vehicle to public transport and non-motorised modes, and reducing energy consumption and the use of and emissions from fossil fuels under Barcelona Metropolitan Region Infrastructure Master Plan (PDI).

Block 2. LOCAL TRANSPORT

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Block 3. URBAN GREEN SPACES barcelona, a city growing greener

Present situation

• Green urban spaces in Barcelona have increased by 150% (approximately 5% per year) over the last 30 years. Including both public and private spaces, there are currently 3,642 hectares of total green surface in Barcelona (36.8% of the city’s total area).

• Despite the city’s dense structure, the Council has undertaken the search for new green spaces as an important challenge. Barcelona is situated on a plain, practically all built on, bordered by the sea, the Besòs and Llobregat rivers and the Serra de Collserola hills. To overcome these limitations and find new green spaces, municipal strategy focuses on: establishing new green spaces generated by major urban reforms in the city; strategic recuperation of small spaces, converting them into local public green zones; increasing plant biomass by growing vegetation in existing spaces; and seeking new spaces for green infrastructure. The result has been a 15-hectare increase in the city’s green spaces over the last two years (2008 and 2009).

• Public zones account for 29% of all green spaces in Barcelona, a total of 2,902 hectares, including 1,076 hectares of strictly urban spaces and 1,795 hectares that form part of Collserola Park in the municipality of Barcelona. The figure also includes 30 hectares of coastal spaces, as Barcelona has a 13.2-kilometre sea front, the largest and, without doubt, most frequented public space in the city.

Measures promoted

• Significant increase in numbers of street trees. The city’s green canopy is completed by the many trees planted to line roads. There were 153,000 such trees in 2008, double the number 30 years ago.

• Providing green spaces closer to citizens. At present, 99.4% of the city’s population lives less than 300 metres from an open space. In recent years, Barcelona has applied a policy of providing green spaces close to residents (“Green 5 Minutes from Home” and “Pocket Gardens”, amongst other initiatives).

• Conversion of around forty interior courtyards in Eixample district housing blocks into publicly-owned green and leisure zones. These spaces currently represent a total area of more than 87,000 m2. Over the next three years, a further nine similar interventions will be made in eight interior courtyards in the Eixample district.

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• Implementation of the actions and strategies established under the 2008-2011 Municipal Action Plan, such as the opening of new green spaces, the integral rehabilitation and renewal of certain parks and gardens, improvements to furniture, renovation of children’s playgrounds, replacement of trees at crossroads and rehabilitation of historic buildings in parks. This plan provides 137 million euros for improving the city’s green spaces, many of them small and medium-sized.

• New framework for urban green established in Barcelona Strategic Green Plan (being drafted during 2009). The plan will set out priorities regarding green space management, dissemination and citizen participation.

• Operation of a network of urban market gardens (allotments) comprising 321 plots measuring 25-40 m2 forming part of 12 urban market gardens with a total area of 25,000 m2.

Block 3. URBAN GREEN SPACES

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Block 4. SUSTAINABLE USE OF LANDbarcelona, a motor for sustainable urban transformation

Present situation

• Town planning action in the city of Barcelona is designed and implemented with the dual purpo-se of improving quality of life and promoting a balanced model for the urban fabric. In this way, Barcelona seeks to remedy urban dysfunctions whilst also meeting the challenges that face us today: sustainability, and entry into the informa-tion and knowledge society. Barcelona conforms to the Mediterranean city model, one based on compactness, complexity, efficiency and social co-hesion and stability, combined with quality public spaces. This places our city in a good position to promote urban sustainability.

• Urban changes in recent years have focused, in the main, on: recovering, transforming and converting former industrial land (regeneration of the city’s sea front and both banks of the River Besòs); reducing building density and rehabili-tating the old town and certain neighbourhoods (such as District 22@); transforming the public space, thereby consolidating the city as an exam-ple of quality at international level; and burying new infrastructure underground (for example, Fòrum 2004 and the development of La Sagrera neighbourhood) in order to reclaim more public space. At present, work continues on the final stages in recovering and transforming the Besòs: the university campus, the new marine zoo and the Natural History Museum.

Measures promoted

• Containment of urban density through the project for “superblocks” (groups of housing blocks in the Eixample district where streets are reserved, in the main, for journeys on foot and by bicycle) and measures to reduce density in highly built-up areas. The three “superblocks” establis-hed in Barcelona, one in La Ribera neighbourhood (around Santa Maria del Mar) and two in Gràcia, have led to an increased number of journeys completed on foot (>10%) and by bicycle (>15%), as well as to significant increases in commercial and service activities.

• Regeneration of urban spaces in Barcelona through the Neighbourhood Law, which has led to the rehabilitation of ten neighbourhoods since 2004, and the 2008-2011 Plan for Integral Improvement of the Public Space, whose bene-fits include decreased light and noise pollution and improved green spaces. Moreover, since it was first introduced in 1986, the “Barcelona Posa’t guapa” (“Barcelona, Make Yourself Pretty”) campaign to improve the urban landscape has

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generated the restoration of one quarter of all the building fronts in the city.

• Application of environmental criteria in the design of buildings and new urban developments, to establish more sustainable neighbourhoods (ecobarris) and more efficient urban structures. Work has already begun on developing these ecobarris, the first of which will be the Vallbona Strategic Residential Area (ARE) in the Nou Barris district.

• Development, over the next few years, of major urban development projects aimed at improving the quality of public spaces in Barcelona. The following measures are amongst the most significant: covering the railway lines at Sants; the new Diagonal-Besòs inter-university campus; urban improvements to Plaça de les Glòries and surrounding area or the “Barcelona Innovation Zone” project.

• Rehabilitation of many abandoned buildings, converting them to new uses for citizens, such as cultural centres, nursing homes, schools, sports facilities, etc. This entails the recovery of existing sites that form part of our industrial heritage, avoiding the need for new construction, saving resources and maintaining the city’s compact structure. Examples include: Can Batlló, which has been converted from a textile workers’ village into a model neighbourhood; Fabra i Coats, from industrial factory to Arts Factory; and the Casernes de Sant Andreu, from barracks to social facilities.

Block 4. SUSTAINABLE USE OF LAND

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Block 5. NATURE AND BIODIVERSITYbarcelona, a city with a huge “green lung”

Present situation

• Barcelona contains a vast variety of different environments and surroundings despite the apparently homogenous nature of the city’s urban core. The largest, most diverse and best-conserved natural space in Barcelona are the woodlands of the Serra de Collserola hills. Some 22.5% of the area of this 1,795-hectare natural park falls within the municipality of Barcelona. Other outstanding natural spaces include the coastline and the banks of the River Besòs. Within the urban fabric itself are several types of green spaces embracing a wide diversity of environments: parks, gardens, squares and flower beds.

• Collserola maintains enormous ecological and natural importance within the urbanised environment of the great Barcelona conurbation, as the only green space in the city for which specific protection provisions have been introduced. The reserve is protected by the Special Plan for the Organisation and Protection of Collserola Natural Park (PEPCo, 1987). The process of approving a decree to declare the Serra de Collserola Natural Park and the Partial Nature Reserves of La Font Groga and La Rierada-Can Balasc is currently under way at the Catalan Parliament.

• Mount Montjuïc (450 hectares) is, excepting Collserola, the space with the greatest biodiversity in city. The 16 parks on the mountain’s slopes provide a habitat for important communities of flora and fauna. This natural wealth includes more than 60 species of vertebrates, as well as a considerable diversity of ornamental plants from different biogeographic regions. In 2009, an initiative was launched to protect the Montjuïc cliff area.

• There are also other green spaces in the city of Barcelona that, though not protected by legal provisions, are nonetheless important in terms of biodiversity. These include the Besòs River Park, the Ciutadella Park and Tres Turons Park, as well as parks that form part of the urban fabric and also provide a habitat for many species of flora and fauna.

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Measures promoted

• Public awareness-raising about green spaces and biodiversity through publications (guides to parks and environmental education, information brochures, technical manuals, posters, books and stories) and the organisation of activities.

• Participation in the ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) Local Action Biodiversity project and endorsement of the Countdown 2010 Objectives.

• Monitoring, protection and conservation of endangered, protected and/or autochthonous species of flora and fauna. The city authorities have drawn up specific plans to: monitor and manage urban biodiversity in buildings; monitor the peregrine falcon in the urban environment; conserve the jackdaw; and protect amphibian

species.

• Designing an integral strategy to improve knowledge about and conservation of biodiversity in the city: Barcelona’s First Biodiversity Plan (being drafted during 2009), which makes a strong commitment to disseminating values to citizens and to international agreements on biodiversity.

• Establishing a network of green corridors to bring citizens closer to nature and increase ecological benefits from them. Between the mountains and the sea, Barcelona contains three large natural axes that link the city’s great forest area, Collserola, to the Montjuïc, Ciutadella and Fòrum parks.

Block 5. NATURE AND BIODIVERSITY

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Block 6. LOCAL AIR QUALITYbarcelona, a city where people breathe better every day

Present situation

• Barcelona is aware of the health problems caused by air pollution, and takes measures to combat it, such as promoting cleaning vehicles (electric cars for example) and more efficient energy systems, reducing waste generation at source, establishing green and public spaces in proximity to residents, etc.

• Barcelona closely monitors air quality in the city using 13 public measuring stations that form part of the Air Pollution Monitoring Network of Catalonia.

• In recent years, air pollutant levels in Barcelona have remained stable or have tended to decrease. Average annual levels of PM10 continue to fall generally compared to 2007 at all the monitoring stations in the city. Continuing the trend set over the last four years, in 2008, none of the six stations that measure ozone in Barcelona recorded levels above the limits considered safe for human health. Moreover, background levels of NO2 in 2008 were lower or only slightly higher than the annual limit.

• The response to high PM10 and NO2 levels is the declaration of special air protection zones for these two pollutants in several townships forming part of Barcelona conurbation (including the city itself). Steps taken include the approval of the 2007-2009 action plan to improve air quality, which includes 73 measures aimed at reducing these pollutants in the domestic, energy, transport and other sectors. The plan sets out to decrease NOx and PM10 emissions by 30%.

• Barcelona is provided with various instruments for communication, both to inform citizens about air quality and to raise awareness: the air quality index, the Public Health Agency, the Tropospheric Ozone Monitoring Campaign, and several publications.

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Measures promoted

• Introduction of measures included in the 2008-2011 Municipal Action Programme (PAM) to improve air quality and reduce noise and light pollution.

• Commitment to integral air quality management, since the strategy for reducing air pollution in the city has a transversal effect on such vectors as mobility, energy, waste, water, biodiversity and urban green. For this reason, with a view to improving air quality, Barcelona City Council focuses to a large extent on achieving progress with regard to promoting sustainable urban mobility, increasing energy saving and efficiency

and using available renewable energy resources, as well as improving management of urban green.

• Increased knowledge about greenhouse gas emissions and forward-looking planning for the measures that the municipal authorities and citizens in general will have to implement in order to combat climate change, both at preventive and mitigation and adaptation levels. Barcelona works on all these fronts through the 2011-2020 Energy, Climate Change and Air Quality Plan, by signing the Covenant of Mayors (2008) and through the Lighting Improvement Plan (2008).

Block 6. LOCAL AIR QUALITY

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Block 7. NOISE POLLUTIONbarcelona, a city sensitive to noise

Present situation

• Over the last twenty years, Barcelona City Council has worked intensely to reverse the trends towards increases in noise levels. As in other European cities with similar characteristics, noise levels in Barcelona are rather high as a consequence, principally of the type of urban fabric, with high population density and traffic levels and due to its metropolitan status, its tourist attraction to tourists, the co-existence of different activities in the same space, etc.

• Motor traffic is the main source of noise in the city, followed by night-time leisure activities. However, the majority of public complaints concern noise generated by more occasional sources, such as works in the street, open-air activities, sirens, etc.

• Most of Barcelona’s population is still exposed to noise levels between 60 and 65 dBA. The population exposed to more than 65 dBA decreases drastically towards evening and nightfall. In 2007, 48.27% of the sections in the city were classified as highly sensitive to noise, 32.61% as moderately sensitive to noise and 19.12% as less sensitive to noise.

Measures promoted

• Planning and implementation of measures to decrease noise pollution. Barcelona has been working for two decades to reduce noise levels in the city’s streets, and is a pioneer in Spain in drawing up noise maps (1990, 1997 and 2007), municipal ordinances on noise (1985, 1999) and action plans to combat noise (2001-2004; 2005-2007).

• Awareness-raising as an indispensable tool for reducing noise. The means available to Barcelona City Council for raising public awareness about noise are: publication of environmental education guides (Menys soroll, millor [“The Less Noise, the Better”] and En moto, mou-te bé on motorbike use); loan of noise meters to schools; media briefings on noise, etc.

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• Reducing areas with excessive noise levels and conserving quiet areas in Barcelona are priority measures in the new Action Plan for Reducing Noise Pollution (2009–2019), currently at the approval stage. The action plan focuses principally on mobility, planning, services and activities of all kinds in the city. The plan, which is integral, transversal, global and exemplary, is structured into five strategic lines. These are developed in 18 action programmes which, in turn, are defined through 58 specific measures to be implemented over the plan’s ten-year implementation period (though the plan will be reviewed every five years).

• Draft of a new ordinance on noise (at the approval stage), focused on prevention. The main novelties introduced by the new ordinance are, amongst others, a focus on works, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems; and the classification of activities according to the noise they generate. Together with the text of the ordinance, the new noise capacity map will also be approved.

Block 7. NOISE POLLUTION

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Block 8. WASTE GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT WASTE MANAGEMENTbarcelona, a city that accepts the waste it generates

Present situation

• As a consequence of the economic crisis, 2009 saw a clear drop in total waste generation in the city of Barcelona. Barcelona City Council is working intensely to consolidate this trend over the coming years.

• In 2008, the average municipal waste generated per capita by citizens in Barcelona was 561.5 kg/inhabitant·year (1.54 kg/inhabitant·day). A total of 907,366 tonnes of waste were collected in Barcelona, a 0.3% reduction compared to 2007.

• Municipal waste in Barcelona includes domestic waste (which accounts for 76% of the total, that is, 427.74 kg/inhabitant·year –1.17 kg/inhabitant·day–), commercial waste (7%), waste generated at markets (2.4%), bulk waste (3.5%), waste collected at “Green Points” (2.4%), and others (8.6%).

• In recent years, a trend towards a decrease in per capita domestic waste generation has been observed (from 1.22 kg in 2001 to 1.11 kg in 2008), accompanied by a considerable increase in waste collected from the commerce sector (192%) and at “Green Points” (66%).

• In 2008, 33.4% of total municipal solid waste was recycled, 21.1% was transformed into methane, 18.0% was transformed into energy and 27.5% was discharged at licensed landfills. Since 2001, the proportion selected at source has increased by 188%, whilst the remaining waste has decreased by more than 20 percentage points, from 86.6% to 66.4%.

Measures promoted

• Development of strategies for prevention (including programmes to reduce consumption of throwaway plastic bags, voluntary agreements to decrease paper use in offices, making compost in the parks park, etc), to encourage sorting at source (with a 151% increase in visits to “green point” waste depots compared to 2004), to promote sorting of organic waste (launch of plan to introduce selective sorting of organic waste in 2009), and awareness-raising (information and awareness campaigns, advertising, environmental education, publication of specific environmental education guides, etc.).

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• Formulation of Barcelona Plan for Municipal Waste Prevention (PREB), currently at the draft stage phase, in accordance with the objectives on waste generation established in the Municipal Waste Management Programme of Catalonia.

• New cleaning and refuse collection contract, running from 2009 to 2017, aimed at improving the collection service and increasing collection points by 37%.

• 2008-2011 “Green Point” Plan to increase the number of neighbourhood “green point” waste depots by 120%. Barcelona City Council will add a further 13 new neighbourhood “green points” to those already operating.

• Planning through the new 2009-2016 Metropolitan Municipal Waste Management Programme (PMGRM), setting the main guidelines for waste prevention and management in Barcelona Metropolitan Area (which embraces 33 townships) over the next six years, in accordance with the provisions of the 2007-2012 Municipal Waste Management Programme of Catalonia 2007-2012. The target is to reuse 55% of waste generated in the metropolitan area.

Block 8. WASTE GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT WASTE

MANAGEMENT

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Block 9. WATER CONSUMPTIONbarcelona, a city committed to the new water culture

Present situation

• Barcelona is amongst the European cities with the lowest domestic water consumption, having reduced consumption by 15% since the year 2000, achieving a figure of around 100 hm3 in 2008. The citizen awareness-raising and information campaigns launched over the last decade have helped to make the people of Barcelona highly aware of the problems caused by water shortages. The frame for the water saving measures implemented is provided by the city’s commitment to a new water culture, in the understanding that water is more than a mere resources; it is also collective heritage, a scarce and indispensable good.

• Water consumption has been reduced in all sectors since 2000: by 0.8% per year in homes; by 0.6% in business and industry; and by 5.2% in the service sector. We should also note that water consumption is also decreasing in relation to population density and area of green spaces.

• Barcelona City Council has joined in with these efforts, and municipal services reduced per capita tap water consumption by 58% between 2000 and 2008. This reduction was achieved largely by improving irrigation systems and increasing the use of groundwater in street cleaning and to water green spaces in the city. Water consumption in municipal buildings and facilities was also reduced to 856.656 m3 in 2008, a 6.2% reduction compared to 2004.

Measures promoted

• Decreasing water consumption by minimising losses in distribution, the introduction of efficiency criteria and awareness-raising amongst users. In 2008, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area water distribution network performance (ratio between entry and outlet flows in the system) was 82.3%.

• Demand-side management as a key aspect in reducing water consumption amongst users. To this end, Barcelona is active in promoting awareness amongst citizens through campaigns, educational activities, publications, etc. Other outstanding measures include the introduction of a water rate billing system based on tier usage and the Municipal Drought Risk Action Plan.

• Updating the plan for groundwater use, promoting the use of phreatic water for purposes other than human consumption since 1998.

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• Implementation of the 2008-2011 plan for the use of alternative water resources, aimed at decreasing potable water consumption by municipal services in the city. This plan includes the overall map of alternative water resources to potable water in Barcelona, showing the water network in the whole city and enabling synergies to be generated amongst different operators, both public and private, with the consequent environmental, economic and social improvement to supply.

• Reducing consumption for watering trees in streets and parks and gardens in the city though measures based on the principles established in the Green Strategic Plan: selection of plants adapted to the Mediterranean climate and with moderate water requirements; installation of automatic irrigation systems to control the frequency and duration of irrigation in each space; reducing water consumption by watering at night, when evapotranspiration is lowest; and use of groundwater for irrigation.

• Achieving a great future challenge: extending the use of non-potable water (phreatic or regenerated) for certain uses by large consumers (industry and facilities) that do not require the highest quality water. Efforts to meet this challenge, which could lead to potable water savings of up to 10 hm3 per year, will be based on establishing lines of action and defining responsibilities under the new Water Cycle Master Plan.

Block 9. WATER CONSUMPTION

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Block 10. WASTEWATER TREATMENTbarcelona, a city which closes the water cycle

Present situation

• Barcelona has worked intensely in recent years in the field of wastewater treatment, to such an extent that the city now fully complies with the requirements established by Council Directive 91/271/CEE concerning urban wastewater treatment.

• Barcelona treats all the water consumed in the city, thanks to its appropriate collector network and optimal regulation of maximum concentration of treated waste discharged into the public channel. As regards wastewater treatment plants, the Besòs facility, located below Plaça del Fòrum de Barcelona, is the world’s largest covered wastewater treatment plant integrated into the urban fabric. For its part the Baix Llobregat wastewater treatment plant, located in the Llobregat River Delta, which entered into service in 2006, has one of the largest and most modern

water regeneration facilities in Europe, treating water from the sanitation systems in Barcelona and eight other townships. Both wastewater treatment plants also generate energy by heating sludge at their own cogeneration (CHP) facilities.

• Barcelona closes the water cycle: the city reuses all the sludge generated by wastewater treatment. At present, the wastewater treatment plants in the metropolitan area reuse some 35 hm3/year. Water treated at the Baix Llobregat plant has been used since 2006 for various purposes: pumping water upriver to maintain the ecological flow in the lower stretch of the River Llobregat; agricultural irrigation; application in the Llobregat Delta and Littoral Park wet zones; and injection into the aquifers in the delta to combat the intrusion of seawater and prevent salinisation.

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Measures promoted

• Advanced management of the Barcelona sewage system in order to control flooding and reduce discharges from the sanitation system into the sea and rivers during rainy periods. Information about advanced operation of the sewage system is constantly provided by the Telecontrol System, enabling action to be taken to improve its operation during rain. Amongst the most important elements in the sewage system are the stormwater detention basins, three of which (Escola Industrial, Zona Universitària and Bori i Fontestà) are telemanaged.

• Elimination of the pollutant load in wastewater; complying with current legal requirements, Barcelona’s wastewater treatment systems achieve high percentages of pollutant reduction. One direct consequence of this is the good quality of the bathing water along the metropolitan coastline.

• Launch of the Barcelona Integral Sewage Plan (PICBA)’06, which provides for the following measures, amongst others: new primary collectors; mixed-use underground detention basins; emergency detention basins for exceptional cases of torrential rain; diversion gates; construction of new sinks and improvement to those already in service.

• Adaptation of wastewater management systems to climate change through: minimisation of runoff through the network of collectors and stormwater detention basins and the telemanaged sewage network; maintenance and improvement of seawater quality; regeneration of the Mediterranean coastline; and public awareness-raising that water is a scarce resource and that we need to take the entire water cycle into account.

Block 10. WASTEWATER TREATMENT

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Block 11. THE CITY COUNCIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENTbarcelona has a city council that is committed to the environment

Present situation

• As the first signatory of the Agenda 21 - Citizen Commitment to Sustainability, Barcelona City Council leads the process, and has drawn up its own action plan, which consists of two main lines of action: greening the Municipal Action Programme (PAM), which describes the measures to be introduced in the city every four years; and the introduction of the +Sustainable City Council Plan, involving action affecting the municipal organisation itself.

• The +Sustainable City Council internal greening plan, based on raising awareness and training municipal works and introducing environmental criteria into day-to-day activity. The spheres of action embraced by this plan include from purchasing more products to service contracts, maintenance of public property and services, contracts for building construction or rehabilitation works and greening public events.

• The new structure of Barcelona City Council’s Environment Area is based on four transversal directions (environmental education; knowledge management; investment and public way; and resource management) and is reinforced by four environmental vectors (water cycle; green spaces; energy and environmental quality; cleaning and waste management).

• A priority area for Barcelona City Council action is greening the municipal organisation itself. As a result, four municipal organisations have been awarded the ISO 14001 environmental certification. Moreover, the Council consumes sustainable products. For example: paper (70% recycled paper); certified wood (100% of wood and wood products from legal sources); efficient technology (100% of computer equipment has energy certification); sustainable cleaning (100% of buildings are cleaned using ecologically-certified products); and water saving (installation of dry urinals, dual-flush mechanisms, etc.), etc.

• Since 2006, Barcelona City Council has included environmental criteria in general and particular administrative specifications. Today, 100% of municipal contracts include compulsory environmental criteria, whilst 37% include at least one additional optional environmental criterion.

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Bloc 11. THE CITY COUNCIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Measures promoted

• Drawing up the Municipal Building Energy Saving and Improvement Plan (PEMEEM) in the frame of Barcelona Program of Plan for Energy, Climate Change and Air Quality (PECQ). Energy consumption in public buildings and facilities accounts for around 10% of the total consumption linked to municipal activity and public transport. The PEMEEM sets out to reduce energy consumption by municipal facilities by 10% compared to 2008 by the year 2020, a saving of 2,355 tCO2eq/year.

• Implementation of the “Urban Lab” project, transforming Barcelona into a platform for innovation and the scene for several pilot schemes that will later be introduced in the city itself, as well as other European cities. New technologies and urban services are systematically selected for testing, evaluation and promotion. Many of these activities are concentrated in the new District 22@, which is equipped with the most advanced infrastructure and communication systems. Barcelona also centralises all initiatives and demonstration projects promoting electrical vehicles through the LIVE office and the Movele plan.

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Block 12. THE CITIZEN COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY – BARCELONA A21barcelona, a citizenry committed to the environment

Present situation

The Agenda 21 and Municipal Action Plan are the instruments the City Council uses to achieve better, more sustainable and more equitable quality of life for citizens. All environmental vectors are taken into account when planning infrastructure and services, whilst another key objective is to encourage citizen participation.

• A strategic plan, agreed with all stakeholders in the city. The Citizen Commitment to Sustainability - Barcelona Agenda 21 is a transversal medium- and long-term strategic plan spanning a ten-year period (2002-2012).

• The Municipal Council for the Environment and Sustainability (CMMAS) was active in promoting the Agenda 21. Throughout the draft process (1998-2002), emphasis was placed on involving citizen organisations and groups in the conviction that it is only possible to build a more

sustainable city with everyone’s participation and cooperation. As a result, the Citizen Commitment to Sustainability was adopted. This document sets out the principles and goals shared by all citizen organisations that sign it voluntarily. Each signatory draws up its own action plan to specify the measures it proposes to implement in order to help achieve the collective objectives.

• PAM 2008-2011 is the Municipal Action Plan, which defines the city’s local and supramunicipal strategy during a legislature. Demonstrating that the integral and sustainable management of environmental vectors (energy, waste, water, noise, transport, etc.) is amongst Barcelona’s top priorities, the PAM describes the situation, proposes actions to be implemented in different spheres and establishes the economic and budgetary frame for action.

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Measures promoted

• Implementation of the Action Programme 21, by which the City Council involves all groups in its actions, bringing them together in a real network of stakeholders for sustainability. The objectives of this action programme are: to encourage the formulation of action plans; to raise the profile of the work carried out by signatory organisations; and to promote networking and the generation of synergies. The synergy generated by the Stakeholders’ Network enables organisations to establish exchanges and cooperation projects.

• Establishment of the Agenda 21 Schools Programme, with the aim of spreading ideas about sustainability and good practice through active participation by centres of education. The 2009-2010 academic year is the ninth since the programme was first launched. A total of 264 education centres now take part, representing

68% of state schools and 32% of private and subsidised private schools in Barcelona.

• Citizen awareness-raising. Barcelona City Council also seeks to give individual citizens and families the opportunity to discover and endorse the objectives set out in the Commitment. To this end, educational resources publications and activities are made available to one and all. These resources include: the Fàbrica del Sol Resource Centre: the 20+1 actions personal guide to the Agenda 21; the programme How Does Barcelona Work?; many publications and guides; etc.

• The citizens of Barcelona are becoming ever-more environmentally aware. According to the 2008 survey of habits and values concerning the environment and sustainability, 47% of Barcelonans are committed to the environment.

Block 12. THE CITIZEN COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY –

BARCELONA A21

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