The Second Deputy Mayor of the Barcelona City Council, Maria Eugènia Gay, participated on June 23 in the summit organized by the Paris City Council, “From Paris to Belém: 10 Years of Global Climate Action”. The event brought together cities from around the world in the French capital to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement reached at COP21 and to promote greater climate ambition ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2025, COP30, which will take place in November in Brazil.

The summit was opened by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo; the President of the European Council, António Costa; the President of COP21 and former French Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius; and the Executive Director of COP30, Ana Toni. Also participating were the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, and the mayors of cities such as London, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, Athens, Douala, Copenhagen, Milan, Rabat, Brazzaville, and Phoenix.

Maria Eugènia Gay took part in the session “Democracy and Climate Justice: One and the Same Struggle”, alongside, among others, the Mayor of London and President of C40, Sadiq Khan; the Mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego; the Governor of Nairobi, Sakaja Arthur Johnson; the Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas; the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Mattias Guyomar; and the former Mayor of Los Angeles and former President of C40, Eric Garcetti.

The Second Deputy Mayor spoke about the leadership of cities in climate action and how Barcelona has assumed this leadership on three fronts: energy transition, mobility transformation, and climate adaptation. She emphasized that “social justice is the fundamental pillar” of this approach. Among the actions carried out by the municipal government, she highlighted “the School Climate Plan, through which we are installing climate control in 170 public schools by 2030, funded by the tourist tax.”

The event placed special emphasis on issues linking climate and the protection of democracy. In this regard, Gay concluded that “local governments must defend the principles of democracy, pluralism, and transparency in collaboration with international institutions,” because “the fight against climate change and for democracy is the same.”