The mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, and the rector of the University of Valencia, Mavi Mestre, signed on 25 January 2022 the declaration of intent “València Climate-Neutral City 2030”, the document that sets out the commitment of both institutions to make Valencia one of the one hundred European climate‑neutral cities before the year 2030.
The University of Valencia’s adhesion took place just one day after the mayor presented the València 2030 Climate Mission strategy, an event held in the City Hall’s Crystal Hall that brought together the city’s entire social, economic, entrepreneurial, academic, cultural, and institutional fabric. The meeting showcased the convergence of diverse and plural commitments toward a common goal: accelerating the city’s path to climate neutrality by 2030.
Mayor Joan Ribó expressed his satisfaction with this agreement between the City Council and the University of Valencia, “aimed at achieving the mission of making Valencia a decarbonised city by 2030.” “It is a very complex and very important objective, but one that the City Council cannot achieve alone,” he noted, highlighting “the satisfaction of having in this project the city’s first public university, founded by the City Council of Valencia more than 500 years ago; and the fact that today this university joins this great idea, this mission we have set for ourselves, is a very important step forward.”
For her part, Rector Mavi Mestre affirmed that initiatives like this “belong to the present, but above all to the future; they are a duty we owe to future generations.” Mestre expressed the University’s willingness to participate in this initiative “by contributing research and investigation, but also dissemination, because it is very important to do things, think about them, share them, and communicate them.” She recalled that the institution has more than 55,000 students across bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programmes, “a large population of young people who are enthusiastic about these issues and committed to them.” She concluded by stressing that “we must harness all this potential to make Valencia a better and healthier city, with a higher quality of life, and one that is valued from the outside.”
An urban transformation process
Through this declaration, Valencia commits itself, “as a boost to the pledge made toward climate neutrality, to join an urban transformation process within the framework of the European mission, with the commitment to collaborate and accelerate the implementation of solutions that promote equity and generate social, economic, and environmental benefits in our cities; to approve targets and objectives and design a roadmap to achieve decarbonisation and ecological transition with a vision of climate justice; to accelerate the implementation of the European Cities Mission and communicate the social value of urban transformation processes in alliance with citizens; and to develop and implement in Valencia transformative projects, with the commitment to involve all stakeholders (public administrations, private sector, academia, civil society, and the media).”
Within this context, coordination and collaboration with the University of Valencia is included “in the definition and implementation of co‑creation spaces for solutions aimed at achieving the climate mission (creating co‑governance spaces for strategic reflection on the city’s future and the joint definition of strategic lines of collaboration for the development of a decarbonised city model; establishing collaboration mechanisms with the UV regarding the aforementioned projects; and turning the city into a large innovation space).”
For its part, by joining this transformation process, the University commits to “placing at the city’s service the knowledge and solutions developed on its path toward achieving decarbonisation by 2030; approving targets and objectives and designing a roadmap to decarbonise its campuses with a vision of climate justice; communicating to the university community the social value of the decarbonisation process to raise awareness and engage citizens; aligning with the climate mission and providing strategic orientation to the contributions made by the UV community (teaching and research staff, administrative and service staff, students, faculties and schools, departments, research institutes, cultural centre, botanical garden, and other UV structures) as actors within Valencia’s innovation ecosystem; and generating new spaces for co‑creation of solutions, strategic dialogue, and mutual knowledge transfer with an impact on public policies aimed at achieving the city’s climate mission.”
La Universitat de València se suma a la declaración “València, ciudad climáticamente neutra 2030”
