The Valladolid City Council has approved the Climate Agreement at its Governing Board meeting, which sets out Valladolid's decarbonisation roadmap for 2030. The Climate Agreement, signed by the Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, is a core document detailing the deployment and monitoring of actions necessary to accelerate change and energy transition and achieve climate neutrality by 2030, in line with the ambitious commitment and the proposal submitted at the time to the European Commission. In April 2022, the Commission chose Valladolid among the 100 cities that will be at the forefront in Europe, allowing others to follow its example and contribute to the objective set by the European Union in the Green Deal: for Europe to be the first carbon neutral continent by 2050.

This document, prepared by the Innovation and Economic Development Agency team, belonging to the City Council and under the Department headed by Charo Chávez, with the collaboration of other city services and with the coordination, collaboration and support of the national platform endorsed by the Spanish Government, citiES2030 and the European platform, NetZeroCities, which depends on the European Commission, will receive the final assessment of the European Commission in the upcoming months as the next necessary step to obtain the "Mission Label".

The Climate Agreement specifies the commitments to achieve the city's climate neutrality and develops three plans:

1. The Climate Action Plan
2. The Climate Investment Plan
3. The Governance Plan, specifying the membership of organisations, public and private entities from different sectors.

The Climate Agreement has defined three essential aspects as starting points:

1. What are the base year (2020) greenhouse gas emissions and their distribution by sector?
2. What actions are envisaged to be able to achieve climate neutrality by 2030?
3. What investment effort is required and what direct and indirect economic returns would be obtained.  

The Plan is a major commitment to urban transformation that seeks not only environmental but also economic and social sustainability. In addition to pursuing climate neutrality by 2030 and inspiring other cities as a driver of innovation, with the implementation of the Climate Agreement, Valladolid will contribute to meeting the international objectives of the COP21 Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the European Union's Urban Agenda and the European Green Deal.

Climate Investment Plan

To complete and quantify the different sections of the Agreement, the economic model proposed by the European Commission has been adapted to the reality and circumstances of Valladolid. To reduce the emissions levels by 85%, Valladolid would need an investment of around €1,540 million by 2030 according to this Climate Investment Plan. The other 15% would be achieved through offsetting actions such as carbon sinks within the urban environment.

The working model used not only estimates the investment costs, but also the costs and benefits over the implementation and development period of each action. For each of the city's sectors in which action is to be taken, both the direct economic benefits (those associated mainly with energy savings) and other types of benefits have been assessed in order to quantify the positive economic impact that the different actions have on citizens, such as: influence on public health, improvement of environmental quality, revaluation of assets, and the generation of innovative employment. Taking all these aspects into account, the Climate Investment Plan offers 44% return on investment for the city of Valladolid. 

Focus sectors

The investment plan identifies the priority actions to be implemented in the different sectors to accelerate decarbonisation, such as energy rehabilitation of neighbourhoods and housing, modal shift to public and non-motorised transport and the circular economy. It also identifies the public and private actors that are key for implementing these investments, with an estimated 13% of the total investment coming from public funding.

Endorsements to the Agreement

The Agreement approved by the Governing Board has received almost forty expressions of support, among others from the main business associations, clusters, trade unions, foundations and other types of organisations representing citizens, not for nothing the motto of the Mission is precisely "by and for the citizens.” These endorsements demonstrate support and interest in achieving the Mission's objectives. Accessions to the agreement imply specific actions and commitments by the different organisations to achieve climate neutrality. This is the case of six regional government offices as well as the University of Valladolid.

Mission Label

In the coming days, the plan is to send the Valladolid City Climate Agreement to the European Commission, where it will be evaluated by a group of experts. The cities that obtain a positive evaluation will receive the so-called “Mission Label.”

The Mission Label is designed to recognise the quality and feasibility of the commitments and plans set out in the Climate Agreement. This "label" will serve to obtain advantageous access to financing from European funding programmes (in fact, there will be specific funds reserved for "Mission Cities"), in addition to the Next Generation funds that finance the actions of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. This label will also transmit confidence to private investors and other stakeholders interested in this type of Mission-aligned projects.

First European funds for Mission Development

Although obtaining the "Mission Label" will give preferential access to European funds, the Commission published months ago a call aimed at supporting all cities in their climate ambition, whether or not they were in the Mission. Valladolid -as well as the six Spanish cities that are part of the mission (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Vitoria and Zaragoza)-, has just obtained funds from this call -in which 25 of the 103 projects have been selected- to develop a two-year programme with the common objective of promoting the renovation of buildings and testing solutions towards climate neutrality. Valladolid’s pilot project will study mechanisms and tools for the development of urban regeneration solutions, seeking to reach industrial areas as well. It will try to mobilise all the agents involved in this sector (homeowners' associations, property managers, the construction sector, the financial sector, the energy sector) so that, through communication, collaboration and training, progress can be made towards the decarbonisation of the building sector.

This week saw the kick-off of this new project, which has brought together representatives of the seven Spanish cities in Vitoria, the city that will act as the coordinator.