Science and Innovation

Between 30 September and 3 October 2024, Barcelona will host the High Level Meeting on National Drought Policies (HLM), organised by the major UN climate agencies. The announcement was made by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, last Friday at the UN World Summit on Climate Change COP28.

The UN has chosen Barcelona to promote a meeting to update the objectives set 10 years ago in Geneva through a “Barcelona Declaration”. With this objective in mind, Barcelona City Council is working together with the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge to carry out this project in the city.

Thus, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who also took part in several COP28 events, assessed the future holding of the HLM together with the Third Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera. They welcomed the designation of the city as the venue for this important high-level event, which should make it possible to work on the problem of droughts with a strategic and political vision in which the heads of local, national and international administrations can define maps and roadmaps that take into account not only the meteorological modelling component, but also infrastructures and consumption patterns to combat drought.

Mayor Collboni stressed the importance of the high-level meeting from the point of view of everyday life: “There are three aspects in the lives of our fellow citizens where the immediate effects of climate change are already being felt, in the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat. We need to take measures to mitigate the consequences of climate change in terms of rainfall and in terms of having water available to us”.

He also highlighted Barcelona’s efforts to have one of the lowest water consumption per inhabitant, to desalinate water, and to reuse groundwater, measures that are necessary but not sufficient in future scenarios: “That is why the announcement of this Summit is wonderful news, as it will provide guidance on what we need to do and where we can obtain the resources we need, especially the city councils, to tackle the investments and infrastructures that will make us more resilient to droughts, and that these measures will be coordinated at the level of states and international organisations and will set out the guidelines and practices that can be useful to us all”, declared the Mayor.

Barcelona City Council is offering its full support for the organisation through the Department of International Economic Promotion and the Barcelona Convention Bureau, which is already working on the definitive location of the meeting.