First of all, I would like to thank the Holy Father and the Holy See for bringing together mayors and governors from all over the world at this Summit entitled From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience to continue talking about sustainability and looking after the environment, as a huge concern that is central to the agenda of large cities.
So why is Valencia here today? Valencia is the third largest city in Spain in terms of population, but there is a reason why we are at this Summit. Valencia is European Green Capital 2024. Our city was chosen by the European Commission as the Green Capital of Europe because of a very beautiful story that I would like to tell you. It started with a tragedy, but later became a success story thanks to the people of Valencia.
In October 1957, my hometown was hit by a natural phenomenon, a huge flood. The River Turia used to run right through the city. During the flood, the water rose to a height of over five metres in some places. As a result, businesses, houses and homes were swept away, and hundreds of people died in Valencia and in other nearby towns. At that time, Valencia had to make a decision. The choice was to change the course of the river and divert it outside the city. And as citizens we had to make a decision about what to do with the former riverbed.
At first, the idea was to divert the River Turia and turn this area into a motorway, but the Valencian people protested and, finally, we managed to turn the former riverbed into the marvellous garden it is today, a green haven for culture, sport and leisure.
The Turia Garden in Valencia, one of the mainstays of our European Green Capital status, is currently the longest park in Europe, with nearly ten square kilometres of green parkland. It is a vibrant, healthy area, which is the backbone and the heart of the entire city, running its entire length.
This success story that started in 1957 and has blossomed over the years, has another component. We are lucky and privileged to also have the Albufera, a wonderful freshwater lake beside the Mediterranean Sea, for which we are seeking Biosphere Reserve status from UNESCO. These initiatives have made us a European benchmark in the field of sustainability.
That is why Valencia is here today, because we are the European Green Capital. And we sense the responsibility that comes with this very clearly. This year, we must make policies, strategies and continue to make good decisions, Valencian decisions, as our predecessors did, like the one Valencia took in the flood.
We are the first Mediterranean city to receive European Green Capital status. And this is why our much-loved Mediterranean Sea has to be at the heart of our transformation. We must try to take care of the Mediterranean, the seas and the oceans. We wish to lead this transformation by adopting measures to protect marine species and recover them; to clean up the sea; to prevent waste; and also to prevent polluting plastic.
My city, Valencia, has the largest peri-urban agricultural area in practically all of Spain, with magnificent rice fields and orange groves. It is our mission to nurture and promote zero-kilometre produce, as it is the duty of government to promote healthy food and this type of production, as well as to encourage sustainable agriculture.
It is all very well to talk about zero-kilometre produce and healthy eating, but we need to focus on and promote just how valuable agriculture and farming is for it to take its rightful place at the heart of our policies. And that is one of the issues that we also have to address.
As part of this commitment, this morning I gave Pope Francis a tree, an orange tree, because Valencia is the land of rice and oranges. The Valencia City Council has adopted an orange tree for His Holiness with the name Laudate Deum, the name of the Pope's Apostolic Exhortation on the climate crisis given on 4 October 2023. The fruit of this tree will be sent to the Vatican every year.
Tree adoptions enable us to tend our fields using an ecological and regenerative approach, and at the same time prevent land from being abandoned. These agricultural sustainability strategies to help the economy and farming must continue to proliferate in our cities, in our policies and in our daily lives.
We want to continue to be the marketplace of the Mediterranean, to invest in quality agriculture and to convey the responsibility to future generations of how important it is to look after agriculture and crops.
Valencia is already working on very ambitious projects to become a leader in sustainability, in keeping with its responsibility as European Green Capital 2024. I would like to give you just a few examples:
Firstly, we will gain an extra 355,000 square metres (the equivalent of 35 football pitches) of green belt thanks to a series of initiatives. The most emblematic project, the Parque de Desembocadura (or river mouth park) will be drafted by the end of the year. This will be the culmination of the Turia Garden, our green backbone, finally connecting it to the sea. The section will be called the Europe Stretch, thus ensuring that our city’s involvement in the European Green Deal will live on forever in the history of Valencia.
We have a goal: we want all our citizens to each have at least 10 square metres of green belt. It is an ambitious target, though we believe it is attainable and we are going to do our best to achieve it.
Secondly, may I say that sustainability applied to urban transport is one of the most complex issues for all mayors, especially those in large cities. We have to try not only to promote electric and hybrid vehicles to manage excellent public transport in cities, but we also have to try to provide incentives so that citizens have access to less polluting vehicles. We have to help people change their vehicles and offer them alternatives, such as efficient public transport, if we want to apply the low-emission zones which restrict the use of the most polluting vehicles. If governments are not aligned with citizens, we are sending out an inconsistent message: if we do not take the side of those who have less, we are telling them that they cannot achieve sustainability. And that is unfair. Improving the environment concerns us all.
And thirdly, the latest example of one of the most ambitious projects we are undertaking as European Green Capital is the Requiem in Power project.
Valencia is building the largest public urban solar plant in Europe, installing over 6,600 solar panels in municipal cemeteries, which will reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 1,000 tonnes per year.
How are we going to use this energy? In addition to supplying these municipal facilities, we aim to use the energy generated to help 800 vulnerable households, i.e., 800 families who are currently living in poverty, who cannot pay for electricity or water, in line with the objectives of mission cities to ensure a fair social transition.
In conclusion, I would like to endorse what the Pope has said: sustainability and social equity. We cannot make progress in sustainability if we do not improve social equity.
I would like to leave this reflection here today: cities must move towards climate neutrality, but they must do so hand in hand with their people, taking into account their conditions; otherwise, we run the risk that all the deals reached by cities will be worth little more than the paper they are printed on. If our citizens do not feel we are by their side and listened to in this transition, we will never succeed in our mission.
That is why Valencia is also moving forward with an energy vulnerability action plan to protect the most disadvantaged from having their electricity supply cut off by paying bills for our citizens who cannot afford to do so, with personalised monitoring of some homes and, as I have told you, with the installation of the largest solar power plant on urban land in Europe, which will help these 800 families.
We shall also be opening up climate shelters and spaces in the city because we are not immune or oblivious to the climate stress that we all suffer and are living with. We will also be creating safe school playgrounds because we believe that these spaces are good places to protect our children from the heat in summer.
Finally, I think there is something very important that we all share: we are here to work together in the fight against climate change. And to do so, we must put people at the centre of our decisions. Always.
The Holy Father, in his speech at the Dubai Climate Summit, warned that “the future of us all depends on the present that we now choose”. He also stated: “Let us leave behind our divisions and unite our forces”.[1]
And this is the crux of the matter. Sustainability is not a question of ideologies, and it is not a question of neighbourhoods, regions, countries or states. Sustainability affects us all. It concerns us all. It matters to all of us. And we must all stand together on this.
As a public official and a member of this group of peers that is committed to the future of our children and our cities, I would like to thank the organisers for bringing us together here in the Vatican. It is the right place, it is a place that works for the present and the future of our citizens to live in kinder, more caring, more sustainable cities.
Thank you for supporting sustainability and social justice, and for helping us to always put people at the centre of our public policies.
Thank you very much.
[1] Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), Expo City, Dubai, 2 December 2023, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2023/december/documents/20231202-dubai-cop28.html