In the context of the seventh Milan Pact Forum, the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau @adacolau, and the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aitken @SusaninLangside, have written an article published in El País in which they explain how cities can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by the agri-food system.
Taking advantage of the fact that Barcelona is the World Capital of Sustainable Food in 2021, Barcelona, Glasgow, Milan and other cities around the world are meeting in the next few days at the seventh Global Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Forum to strengthen their commitment to climate action in food policies through The Barcelona Challenge for Good Food and Climate (thebcnchallenge.org).
Both leaders reflect on what local actions can be taken to combat climate change. It should be noted that large global cities suffer particularly from the effects of global warming, but that this does not affect all neighbourhoods equally. Therefore it is essential that environmental policies detect possible inequalities and focus on mitigating the effects of climate change in an equitable way.
A European example of the planning and implementation of urban climate policies is the Barcelona Climate Plan, a project that received the prize for the best initiative of large European cities awarded by the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The main aims of this plan are to reduce polluting gas emissions by 45% by 2020 and to be a carbon neutral city by 2050.