The Directorate of Environmental Services addresses the main environmental challenges facing the metropolitan area of Barcelona, such as climate change, fossil fuel depletion, energy sovereignty, air quality, biodiversity and environmental education.
In the struggle against climate change and carbon emissions, the AMB has spearheaded a common strategy designed with the metropolitan municipalities whose main goal is to lower the carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions) in metropolitan facilities and in the facilities of the organisations which belong to it, and thus contribute to mitigating climate change.
Tools are also used like awareness-raising actions to encourage the application of sustainability criteria in day-to-day life, as well as participation in different European climate change projects.
The energy transition is a gradual process of change to replace energy from fossil sources with renewable and local energy, yet it also entails changes in the way energy is produced, distributed, managed and consumed. In this vein, the AMB has launched a strategy to spearhead a new model and, ultimately, to move towards a new energy culture.
This process entails two fundamental changes: considering energy as a common good and the importance of local energy sources.
The energy stakeholders of the future should preferably work locally from public authority. Within this context, the AMB is articulating the metropolitan energy transition bearing in mind that it covers a densely populated zone with high energy consumption.
The challenge of environmental education reflects the desire to raise awareness and educate on the environment. The AMB encourages everyone to acquire the knowledge, competencies, attitudes and values needed to forge a sustainable future while also promoting critical thinking and collective decision making.
The AMB has gained ground as an environmental authority for administrative intervention matters with the objective of ensuring the integration of environmental protection in all vectors (noise, vibrations, heat, odours, water, dumping, waste, etc.) in order to foster sustainable development.
Tools are also used like awareness-raising actions to encourage the application of sustainability criteria in day-to-day life, as well as participation in different European climate change projects.
The energy transition is a gradual process of change to replace energy from fossil sources with renewable and local energy, yet it also entails changes in the way energy is produced, distributed, managed and consumed. In this vein, the AMB has launched a strategy to spearhead a new model and, ultimately, to move towards a new energy culture.
This process entails two fundamental changes: considering energy as a common good and the importance of local energy sources.
The energy stakeholders of the future should preferably work locally from public authority. Within this context, the AMB is articulating the metropolitan energy transition bearing in mind that it covers a densely populated zone with high energy consumption.
The challenge of environmental education reflects the desire to raise awareness and educate on the environment. The AMB encourages everyone to acquire the knowledge, competencies, attitudes and values needed to forge a sustainable future while also promoting critical thinking and collective decision making.
The AMB has gained ground as an environmental authority for administrative intervention matters with the objective of ensuring the integration of environmental protection in all vectors (noise, vibrations, heat, odours, water, dumping, waste, etc.) in order to foster sustainable development.
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Climate change
The AMB has accepted European climate change objectives as its own, and during the period 2015-2019 it has worked to make them a reality by approving the Climate and Energy Plan 2030 and establishing the Climate and Energy Committee, as well as actions such as conducting studies on climate change, drawing up 18 local adaptation plans and applying the Carbon Management Strategy, whose first stage has come to an end.
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Climate and Energy Plan 2030 and creation of the AMB's Climate and Energy Committee
On 25 September 2018, the Metropolitan Council approved the AMB's Climate and Energy Plan 2030 (PCE30), which is the metropolitan energy transition and climate change strategy to move towards carbon neutrality in the metropolitan region; integrate the energy sovereignty objectives; promote renewable energies, energy efficiency and savings; lower GHG emissions; and adapt to climate change.
The plan involves all the areas of authority within the AMB, as well as 58 companies and entities that provide metropolitan services.
Therefore, AMB has adopted the European objectives as its own: 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 30% increase in energy efficiency and 30% increase in consumption from renewable sources. If we consider the AMB's geographic sphere of action and what reductions can be induced, this would mean a 13.2% reduction in emissions compared to the levels in the baseline year of 2005.
All told, the PCE30 contains 92 actions in 13 avenues of action and 4 transversal areas of action at three levels: metropolitan, municipal and institutional:- To renaturalise spaces to make them more resilient to the impacts of climate change (19 actions)
- To encourage local, renewable and more efficient energy in energy/resources (49 actions)
- Active region and citizenry committed to climate justice (10 actions)
- Metropolitan governance coordinated with the town halls (14 actions)
- Improved knowledge of the risk and vulnerability to climate change in the metropolitan region: heat waves, heat islands and foundations for a climate refuge plan
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Tools
- Viewer of future climate scenarios in order to ascertain temperature and precipitation projections in the metropolitan area of Barcelona for three future emissions scenarios and three time horizons (2040, 2070, 2100)
- Carboweb, a tool to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of facilities and companies in the water cycle
- ZWCO2, to calculate the emissions of the AMB's waste facilities and companies
- PREMET25 neutrality analysis: while drawing up the PREMET25, the feasibility of attaining the objective of carbon neutrality by 2025 in the management and treatment of metropolitan waste was calculated, in line with the PRECAT and EU objectives
- Tutorial to encourage the adhesion of the companies participating in the AMB's Carbon Management Strategy to the Government of Catalonia's programme of voluntary agreements
- Tutorial to facilitate viewing of future climate scenarios
- 18 local adaptation plans
The main actions proposed in the PLACC have to do with the avenues established by the metropolitan plan: rivers and river spaces, aquatic ecosystems, aquifers, farming, forests, biodiversity, available of water resources, floods, urban planning, green infrastructure energy, odours, transport, emergencies and health.
- Carbon Management Strategy
The AMB's Carbon Management Strategy has concluded its first stage in which the objective of lowering emissions by 10 % was surpassed with a 15 % reduction (2011-2015). The reduction target was renewed as part of the AMB's PCE30, and a 30 % reduction has been established for 2030 compared to 2011. A 24 % reduction was achieved in the 2011-2017 horizon. The current scope of the strategy extends to 58 companies and metropolitan facilities. The results and method of calculation are verified externally and enable stakeholders to adhere to voluntary agreements.
PCE30. (Executive summary)
PLACC
Carbon Management Strategy (results)
Geportal. Climate change. Access to the viewer
Carboweb
ZWCO2
Tutorial to encourage the adhesion of the companies participating in the Carbon Management Strategy
Tutorial to facilitate viewing of future climate scenarios -
Metropolitan energy transition 2015-2019
During this mandate, the Climate and Energy Plan 2030 (PCE30) was approved, which is a continuation of the AMB's Sustainability Plan (PSAMB) yet focuses on its most important areas: energy and climate change period.
The energy transition is a process of gradual change to replace energy from fossil sources with local and renewable energy, yet it is also a change in the ways energy is produced, distributed, managed and consumed. In this vein, via the PCE30, the AMB has launched the energy road map until 2030, a strategy to promote this new model and ultimately to move towards a new energy culture.
Energy and climate blog-
Actions implemented
- Creation of the Metropolitan Solar-powered Vehicle Charging Station Network (action ENER-5-1 in the PCE30). Implementation plan and 12 installations which total around 100 kWp and consist in a self-consuming photovoltaic installation in a carport which meets 2 different kinds of consumption: public buildings and electric vehicle recharging associated with citizens' obligatory job mobility. Some of these solar-powered vehicle charging stations are located in park and ride car parks. Additionally, one of these facilities is a two-way solar-powered vehicle charging station, or V2G (vehicle-to-grid), a smart grid project that is essential to implementing an effective energy transition which combines renewables and storage.
- Construction of 8 solar photovoltaic installations on the roofs of public municipal facility buildings (action ENER-5-2) with an installed power higher than 500 kWp, which is expected to produce 742,000 kWh/year of electrical energy, and 8 other executive projects which the town halls have carried out, with 344 kWp of power.
- NZEB (Net Zero Energy Building) metropolitan school model (action ENER-6-1): energy projects and diagnosis in 9 secondary schools in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (in one, in Viladecans, the rehabilitation was carried out), which later led to the definition of an NZEB energy rehabilitation model for the schools in the metropolitan area, which defines the appropriate technical solutions, the potential energy savings and CO2 emissions, as well as the investment needed and its economic feasibility, after an exhaustive inventory of the 282 secondary school buildings in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. This model should allow the execution of projects and the investments needed in the future to be prioritised.
- Municipal plans of photovoltaic roofs (action ENER-5-2): The objective is to offer the municipalities a planning tool to make investments in photovoltaic solar energy in buildings that house municipal facilities by properly answering their questions on the energy that can be installed, the amount of energy the installation will produce or the best facility to house it.
- Guaranteed saving service in ESCO format in 5 municipal public buildings (action ENER-6-8), according to which minimum energy savings of 15% per year for 4 years is guaranteed via an ESCO contract.
- Energy certification of 44 municipal public buildings (action ENER-6-6). This thus fulfils the regulations in place, in addition to allowing the town halls to apply for subsidies and assistance to improve these buildings.
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Energy governance
- Metropolitan Committee for a New Energy Model (action GOV-13-4): The energy stakeholders of the future will probably have to act locally from public authority. In order to do so, there is a debate forum and working group: the Metropolitan Committee for a New Energy Model, created on 29 April 2015, which has technical contact in the field of energy from each of the metropolitan municipalities. Its goal is to establish an efficient means of dialogue among the municipalities in the AMB. At the meetings, the participants discuss, debate and share successful cases, common problems, barriers identified, calls to apply for financing and the municipalities' needs.
- Metropolitan Energy Observatory (action GOV-12-5): This is a web platform created by the AMB which automatically compiles the information from all the municipally owned electrical utilities (buildings, public lighting and other facilities) and fossil fuels from each of the 36 town halls in the AMB in a single visualisation environment where data can be analysed jointly. It encourages benchmarking and good practices among metropolitan town halls, comparisons of the status of utilities and the energy situation via indicators (kWh/m2, kWh/pdl, kWh/h, etc.) and prices (€/kWh), both globally and by type of facility, and it provides citizens greater transparency, among many other possible applications.
- Energy mapping (action GOV-12-5): The metropolitan energy map is the first detailed energy map produced in Europe with real data in high resolution. The level of detail reaches up to registered plots of land, so it has become a big data energy project, in which the data have been duly anonymised.
- Barcelona Energia, the metropolitan energy operator, was launched (action GOV-13-3), as well as other strategic projects, such as drawing up a catalogue of municipal ordinances for an energy transition, which many municipalities have used as a reference to further their own ordinances and amend them in favour of a shift in energy mode; the Badia NZEB 2025 strategy to completely renovate the municipal residential buildings in the municipality of Badia del Vallès using almost zero consumption criteria; the online Solar Calculator tool, which is available on the AMB website and is used by many citizens in the metropolitan area and others to conduct basic studies on the feasibility of solar installations in their buildings and homes.
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Main data on the actions implemented
- 876,000 kWh per year of photovoltaic production in the 20 photovoltaic installations (building roofs and solar-powered vehicle charging stations) executed by the AMB.
- 728,000 kWh saved per year in projects drawn up by the AMB and executed by the town halls.
- 528,000 kg of CO2 saved per year among all the projects executed.
- €236,000 in investment attracted in 4 projects won with competitive European financing.
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€1,64M in investment mobilised in projects drawn up by the AMB and executed by the town halls.
o €600,000 in photovoltaic solar energy projects
o €800,000 in the NZEB Escola Garrofer Viladecans rehabilitation
o €240,000 in projects with DHC biomass networks
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Actions implemented
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Climate and Energy Plan 2030 and creation of the AMB's Climate and Energy Committee
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Barcelona Energia – Metropolitan energy commercialiser
During this mandate, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area has initiated a process toward a more sustainable energy model while working to maximise the energy generated by local renewable resources and lowering the end energy consumption in all the activities and services it conducts. With this purpose in mind, it has focused on developing energy policies in a comprehensive, efficient and coordinated way.
In this sense, the AMB has one of the first initiatives to publicly manage energy in order to work towards the energy transition: the establishment of Barcelona Energia, the public energy commercialisation company, which reflects the desire to play an active role in the energy market and to spearhead the transition towards the energy sovereignty of the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
With this new model, the AMB and the metropolitan town halls will get the maximum social profitability in joint energy management and in the energy supplied to buildings and services, as well as energy services and actions to foster efficiency and renewable generation.
The shift in energy model is a far-reaching strategy which entails recovering energy sovereignty while promoting public and citizen production of energy and the democratisation of access to and management of energy as a public service. The creation of a metropolitan energy operator decisively contributes to reaching this objective, since it promotes a new and more sustainable energy model based on efficiency, the generation of renewable energies and citizen participation.
Barcelona Energia-
Services
As a public electricity commercialiser, Barcelona Energia encompasses the following activities:
- The purchase and supply of electrical energy in both public buildings in the metropolitan area and by citizens (a total of 20,000 users).
- Representation of producers in the market of energy generated in the municipal photovoltaic plants, the energy recovery plant in Sant Adrià de Besòs and the biogas plant in Garraf.
- Representation in the market of energy surpluses produced in the household self-consumption installations.
- The promotion and stimulation of renewable energy generation in the metropolitan area.
Energy recovery plant in Sant Adrià de Besòs -
Values
Public electrical energy commercialising means the adoption of two very important added values: the energy generated must be renewable and certified, and it can be related to the city's generation and consumption for the first time. It is important for citizens to be aware of the environmental, economic and social benefits posed by this opportunity, as well as the active role they can play in achieving this goal.
Barcelona Energia operates according to the following values:
- It commercialises certified renewable energy which has a guarantee of being 100% renewable, issued by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC).
- It is public, promotes 100% public energy management and works in coordination with the city's and AMB's other services.
- It promotes the local generation of renewable energy with the goal of lowering energy losses associated with transport and ceasing to depend on the current electrical oligopoly.
- It is transparent and indicates where the energy supplied comes from and the costs of the final invoice price.
- It promotes citizen energy culture to improve efficiency and savings.
- It allows for participative governance because it opens up spaces for citizens to play an active role in the commercialiser's decision making. It also encourages citizens to take a prime role in this far-reaching transformation because it increases citizens' energy culture and empowers them to participate actively in the sustainable future.
- It places citizens at the core with efforts on behalf of the right to energy, in response to Law 24/2015.
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Services
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Compartim un Futur (We Share a Future)
The educational programme Compartim un Futur (We Share a Future) is the AMB's main tool to spotlight environmental education or education for sustainability. It implies a cultural change in which co-responsible action between administrations and citizens on the basis of eco-social responsibility in the broadest sense (social equity, economic viability and ecological sustainability) is crucial.
During this mandate, the second phase of the Metropolitan Education for Sustainability Programme 2014-2020 was virtually completely implemented, and strands have been added to educational subjects such as climate change, energy and energy efficiency and knowledge of the green metropolitan infrastructure.
One important representative fact from the 2015-2019 mandate is the programme's increasing participation (in the last period, the rate of participants per group dropped following programme quality criteria, which explains the decline).
Gràfic Evolució del nombre de participants
Gràfic Escolars participants. Dades del curs 2016-2017
The new structural developments initiated with the renewal of the new contract in 2019 include the specialisation of the offer to audiences who are more relevant because of their characteristics: official education, where we find activities for educational levels from preschool to bachelors and Masters degrees; unofficial education and education for citizens, targeted at the general public, either organised or not (entities, civic centres, neighbourhood associations, libraries etc.); activities for fun educational and events workshops; and adult occupational training.
To accompany this proposal, a set of new services have been launched with the objective of equipping We Share a Future programme users with knowledge, networking, resources and updated environmental concepts that will allow them to acquire a critical sense towards their environment and push for a change in habits to attain individual and collective wellbeing. They include:
- We Share a Future informant: This is a new advisement service for schools, associations, entities or anyone interested in the programme. It provides personalised visits or communication via telephone or email to explain the proposal or provide more comprehensive information. It also accepts and manages suggestions for improvement from participants, and it provides specific advice for special education centres and schools interested in service learning (SL) and community service projects offered by the AMB.
- Teaching guide: Digital platform which allows different educational resources from the We Share a Future programme to be found easily, quickly, intuitively and adapted to everyone's needs, for both teachers and free time educators or for the public at large.
- Service learning projects (SL): An educational proposal which combines learning processes with actions that are useful for the community. Students learn by working on real needs in the environment with the goal of improving it.
- Examples: Air monitors and Drastic with Plastic (not yet available).
- Teacher training (in process): Training to equip teachers with knowledge about the environmental topics or strands in the We Share a Future educational programme with a certification validated by the Department of Education of the Government of Catalonia.
- Inclusivity: Not everyone has the same capacities and for this reason the AMB has been working with a team of experts to develop more inclusive activities, in addition to providing access to the activities for all participants in the We Share a Future programme.
- Presenting the contents visually, ensuring that the support elements are real and stimulate participation, having a space that allows for the mobility of both the educator and the participants, asking simple mediating questions or conducting motor activities: these are just some of the elements that should be included to ensure that the We Share a Future programme is more accessible to all participants.
- The gender perspective: The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, approved in 2015, sets 17 goals, number 5 of which deals with gender: "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls", an objective which the We Share a Future educational programme has accepted as its own, as well as fostering co-education at all educational levels and the appropriate training of the educational community. The sphere of training and awareness-raising activities for adults, and even more importantly for children, is crucial.
Also worth noting is the work in conjunction with other AMB directorates to ensure that the metropolitan programmes and plans are coherent with regard to environmental education in their forms and actions. Worth highlighting is the collaborative effort in:
A. PREMET25
Environmental education is a strategic factor that can act to improve the current waste management system and shift the model towards the circular economy. In this context, the role of citizens is essential, and environmental education is therefore a mechanism which could activate the environmental co-responsibility of each inhabitant of the metropolitan area with actions aligned with the changes that take place in terms of both waste management and the appearance of new trends and social changes and citizen expression during the forthcoming PREMET25 period of application.
B. Climate and Energy Plan 2030
During this mandate, We Share a Future has already incorporated activities on the topic of energy and climate change. In the PCE30, the goal is to continue developing the We Share a Future programme and to develop and disseminate new educational resources on adaptation to climate change via action EDU-10-3.
C. Plan to Improve Biodiversity
Biodiversity is a fundamental characteristic for ecosystems to work properly, to be able to overcome impacts and alterations, and to be more complex and capable of offering more ecosystem services to the population. The We Share a Future programme includes a set of 64 activities targeted at schools – adapted to the school curriculum – or to adult and family audiences. Of them, 23 take place in metropolitan parks and beaches and 17 of them deal with topics related to biodiversity.
Official education
Offer for citizens and unofficial education
Teaching guide
Service learning projects (SL)
Air monitors
Agenda 2030 for sustainable development -
Metropolitan Programme of Measures against Air Pollution and Action Protocol in the Event of Episodes of High Pollution from NO2 or PM10
Air pollution is one of the environmental impacts in the metropolitan area in terms of the effects on people's health and quality of life.
Within this framework, and on the initiative of the presidency of the AMB, on 1 December 2015 the Council of Metropolitan Municipalities to Fight Air Pollution was established, in which all the metropolitan mayors participate with the goal of developing a joint strategy to combat air pollution and improve air quality in the metropolitan environment.
The results of the work undertaken were the Metropolitan Council's approval of the Metropolitan Programme of Measures against Air Pollution and the Action Protocol in the Case of Episodes of High Pollution from NO2 or PM10 on 31 January 2018.
The Programme includes a package of cross-cutting measures aimed at notably lowering the air pollution level: 33 specific actions in the areas of mobility (which causes 80% of air pollution) and the environment. Of these 33 actions, 10 correspond to the AMB's Directorate of Environmental Services and 8 specifically to the Sustainability and Environmental Education Service.
Metropolitan Programme of Measures against Air Pollution
Action Protocol in the Case of Episodes of High Pollution from NO2 or PM10-
Environmental measures related to public and private construction sites
In 2017, the Guide to Good Practices to Prevent Air Pollution in Construction Sites in the Metropolitan Municipalities was disseminated. This guide describes the premises for making construction sites more environmentally friendly with the goal of lowering the amount of air pollution they generate and even avoiding generating it via preventative and corrective measures.
Later, based on the criteria established in the Guide and the establishment of the intrinsic risk level in the different kinds of construction sites and phases (design, programming, materials transport and unloading, circulation within the site and other associated activities), a metropolitan ordinance was drawn up to control air pollution in construction sites via a participative process in which the technicians from 36 municipalities within the AMB were involved.
Finally, on 6 July 2018 the definitive approval was published in the BOPB (Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona). It is applicable to privately developed construction sites within the geographic region of the AMB. It aims to be a tool within the regulatory framework, for both the metropolitan town halls with ordinances, conditions or instructions related to the topic to adapt them, and for the town halls that do not to have them in compliance with the European objectives (Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and Council, dated 21 May 2008, on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, and subsequent amendments).
Guide to good practices to prevent air pollution in construction sites in the metropolitan municipalities
Metropolitan ordinance to control air pollution in construction sites
Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and Council, dated 21 May 2008, on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe -
Environmental awareness-raising and education measures
In 2017, the awareness and education strategy for the struggle against air pollution was developed, which includes several informative and awareness-raising resources which are available to everyone in the Environment section on the AMB's website.
The service learning (SL) package was designed so that primary and secondary school teachers are equipped with knowledge and are capable of leading classroom sessions about air pollution and the main sources of emission and immission, and on pollution episodes and their effects on health, in addition to a list of good practices and recommendations.
The Air Monitors poster reports on what air pollution is and the main pollutants in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, the effects it has on people's health and what actions we can take to contribute to improving air quality.
In addition to the information provided on the poster on recommendations and good practices, the paper fan reports on the concentrations of different pollutants which activate each of the phases in a pollution episode, and it particularly stresses the most vulnerable people (pregnant women, children, the elderly and individuals with cardiorespiratory problems).
The video explains the sources that produce pollution, the monitoring stations that measure it, what a pollution episode is, the phases according to the concentration of the different pollutants, and a set of good practices so that these pollutants are not further exacerbated during the different phases of the episode, as well as structural recommendations.
Awareness-raising and education strategy for the struggle against air pollution
AMB's informative and awareness-raising resources
Service Learning
Poster
Paper fan
Video -
Measures to predict and evaluate air quality
One the one hand, there is an air quality viewer, which reports on current levels of NO2, PM10 and O3 in the metropolitan region, data from the past 5 days via the provisional data from the Government of Catalonia's XPVCA, and the two-day forecast of these pollutants. For this latter information, it also shows the evolution of background or external pollution, the kind that comes from outside the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
On the other hand, in order to evaluate the different actions conducted in the different spheres within which the AMB holds authorities, work is underway on an air quality evaluation model. This model includes the current scenario (2016) based on the basic network and predicted future scenarios (2024) in the Metropolitan Plan for Clean Mobility (2019-2024), and it reveals a reduction in NO2 and PM10 concentrations due to the renovation of the fleet and other less polluting energy sources.
Air quality viewer
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Environmental measures related to public and private construction sites
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Environmental evaluation as a tool of sustainable development
The metropolitan area of Barcelona is the home to 3.2 million people and generates 52 % of the GDP of Catalonia. It is a highly valuable territory with a notable residential use and intense economic activity. The appropriate development and renewal of the metropolitan area are the foundation which will enable the urban quality to be improved and a friendlier, sustainable and health-appropriate city to be achieved.
a) Environmental reports
In the last mandate, the Directorate of Environmental Services (DSA) has reinforced environmental education as a tool in favour of the sustainable development of the metropolitan area. It has participated in environmental evaluations related to initiatives promoted by other administrations, such as:
- The Urban Development Steering Plan (PDU) from the Centre Direccional de Cerdanyola del Vallès.
- Project to improve drainage and naturalisation in the Cal Notari area in the Horta-Guinardó district within the township of Barcelona.
- Project to improve road safety, longitudinal drainage and complementary work on the BV-1468 motorway from PK 6+320 to 12+220 in the townships of Barcelona, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Sant Just Desvern.
The environmental evaluation of specific initiatives was also undertaken, such as the basic advanced project and the restoration of zones III and IV of the Vall d'en Joan landfill in the township of Begues.
b) Environmental evaluations
During this mandate, the direction and participation of environmental evaluations on strategic aspects began. The goal is to coherently integrate all the AMB's environmental policies on the major challenges facing the metropolitan area, to take advantage of the synergies among measures and to achieve the objectives. These strategic plans or programmes will clearly determine the future of the metropolitan area. For this reason, they are key elements in sustainable development:
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Environmental evaluation of the future Metropolitan Plan to Prevent and Manage Municipal Resources and Waste PREMET25.
- The evaluation set the environmental goal of attaining carbon neutrality in the emissions associated with metropolitan waste management quantified via lifecycle analysis.
- Five socio-environmental goals (SEGs) are analysed: the consumption of material resources and waste generation, energy and climate change, air quality and health, territory, and land and water.
Knowledge of the metropolitan environment and its future evolution within a context of climate change and its outside interactions is a task that the DSA performs via specific studies. The results are an extraordinarily valuable data bank which can help shape the future scenario of the metropolitan area. During this mandate, important studies in the field of climate change were conducted:
- Energy consumption and residential morphological areas. The energy consumption of urban areas is determined by a series of conditions: climatic (outside temperature), the compactness of the area, the thermal transmission of homes' walls, the socioeconomic status of the inhabitants, the orientation of the predominant openings in the area, etc. In order to better understand the influence of these conditions on homes' electricity consumption, an individual evaluation was conducted of the relationship of the indicator on electricity consumption by surface (kWh/m2) and these conditions by each type of urban area.
- Analysis of thermal behaviour in the Gavà-Viladecans-Castelldefels urban continuum.
- Vulnerability to climate change. "Heat waves" study. The study focuses on analysing heat-related indexes. It has been proven that there is a relationship between high temperatures and a worsening of heat-sensitive health problems. Therefore, in this climate change scenario where more extreme temperatures are forecasted, health is a risk that must be addressed.
Statistical data
PREMET25 -
Environmental authority
The AMB has gained ground as an environmental authority on administrative interventions via the following actions:
- Issuing environmental reports in relation to wastewater dumping which are to be included in environmental authorisations and/or licenses.
- Evaluating environmental license requests and formulating the reports included in the Metropolitan Environmental Evaluation Report.
- Authorisations of connections and effects in the metropolitan sanitation network.
- Regenerated water authorisations from the wastewater treatment plants.
- Monitoring and tracking the environmental impacts of the metropolitan waste and wastewater treatment facilities.
- Improvement actions in the struggle against air pollution.
Likewise, in order to exercise as an environmental authority, the AMB regulates its services.
The statistical data are published annually on the AMB website.
Statistical data-
Environmental reports in relation to wastewater discharges
In the exercise of its authorities, the AMB authorises several different kinds of discharges:
- Authorisations of wastewater discharges into the metropolitan network:
During the period 2015-2019, 2,294 cases of wastewater discharges into the sanitation network were handled.
- Authorisations of wastewater discharges through tank lorries
Ever since the incorporation of this procedure, the AMB has accredited 67 carriers to transport the water from the different users to the purification stations in Prat or Besòs, 24 of which are new accreditations. This has meant 5,751 entries of tank vehicles into the water treatment plants and a total of 68,512.8 m3 discharged (see the link to the list of authorised carriers at the end of the text).
- Authorisations of wastewater discharges from the depletion of the phreatic layer
In the period 2015-2019, 62 cases were processed.
- Pollution Reduction Programme (PRC)
List of authorised carriers
Pollution Reduction Programme (PRC). RMAAR -
Metropolitan Environmental Evaluation Report
The matters which the Metropolitan Environmental Evaluation Report (PMAA) covers are primarily air pollution, discharges into the public sanitation system or the municipal sewers, and municipal waste management, in addition to all the other matters over which other administrations hold authority.
The integrated report is requested by the corresponding town hall before the public notification process established by the environmental license procedure of the activities in Annexe II of Law 20/2009, dated 4 December 2009, on environmental prevention and control of activities.
Between 2015 and 2019, the AMB's Metropolitan Environmental Report processed 331 cases, including integrated reports and substantial and non-substantial modifications of activities. -
Interventions in the metropolitan sanitation network: Connections and negative effects
The metropolitan sanitation network is the regional network in the sanitation system, that is, the entire set of metropolitan collectors and complementary facilities such as purification stations, pumping stations, etc. Any type of intervention performed in the regional network must be reviewed and authorised by the AMB.
Likewise, the AMB also studies and authorises the requests from administrations or private parties involved in projects, usually services, that may affect the metropolitan collector system and, if applicable, establishes the conditions to be followed as these projects are executed.
In the period 2015-2019, 41 requests to connect to the network and 111 cases of effects to the metropolitan sanitation network were processed. -
Regenerated water concessions
The planned reuse of regenerated water coming from the wastewater purification stations is essential to meeting certain demands in the metropolitan environment and effectively contributing to preserving the natural environment. In order to contributing these hydric resources, there are different kinds of tertiary treatments at the purification stations which enable water to be regenerated up to the level and quality required for reuse.
The Directorate of Environmental Services is working to secure the corresponding authorisations from the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) so that the metropolitan purification stations can provide regenerated water for specific uses. -
Monitoring and controlling the environmental impacts of the metropolitan waste and wastewater treatment facilities
As the owner of the metropolitan waste and wastewater treatment facilities, the AMB is in charge of overseeing the monitoring and control of the environmental impacts that these two kinds of facilities may have.
To this end, the Environmental Authority Services works along the following strands:
- Monitoring the facilities' compliance with the environmental laws in force.
- Securing the corresponding environmental authorisations and/or licenses for the facilities in accordance with Law 20/2009.
- Securing any other environmental authorisation required to conduct its activity.
- Notifying the competent administration of any possible changes which may be undertaken.
- Carrying out the individual action plans to lower NO2 and PM10 emissions of the waste and wastewater treatment facilities owned by the AMB.
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Struggle against air pollution
As part of the Metropolitan Programme of Measures against Air Pollution, there are plans to work on ensuring that industries gain awareness of the problems associated with air pollution and participate in lowering pollution. Furthermore, specific measures are established, such as the following:
- Creation of a Users' Guide to Control Low-Emissions Generators as a tool for local entities to control air emissions. The Guide was approved in January 2017.
- On 19 December 2017, the AMB's Metropolitan Council approved the General Action Plan to Lower Industrial Emissions, which should help provide a framework for developing individual action plans for each activity in order to establish specific measures depending on the type and characteristics of the processes.
- Individual action plans of waste and wastewater treatment facilities owned by the AMB are also developed.
In order to effectively develop individual action plans for each of the activities implemented in the municipalities within the metropolitan area of Barcelona, the Metropolitan Council held on 29 January 2019 initially approved the Regulatory Ordinance of Protection from Air Pollution from NO2 and PM10 from Industrial Activities, which regulates the sphere of application, the minimum content of the plans, the action procedure in the event of an episode of severe pollution, the control and monitoring of the plan by local entities and the description of the actions that are considered administrative infractions, as well as the sanctions associated with these infractions.
Users' Guide to Control Low-Emissions Generators
General Action Plan to Lower Industrial Emissions -
Regulation of own services
On 27 January 2015 (publication of the entire amended text on 12 December 2018), the AMB's Metropolitan Council approved the Metropolitan Regulation on Wastewater Discharge (RMAAR), whose purpose is the administrative organisation and intervention in the use, maintenance and conservation of the public sanitation service, which encompasses the municipally-owned sewage networks and the metropolitan sanitation network which the AMB owns. It also includes the authorisation of water discharges from the depletion of the phreatic layer for construction, and the authorisation of projects conducted by third parties that affect the metropolitan public sanitation system.
Likewise, the AMB's Regulatory fiscal ordinance of the tax to provide services and perform environmental activities for 2019 was approved in December 2018.
Metropolitan Regulation on the Discharge on Wastewater
Regulatory fiscal ordinance of the tax to provide services and perform environmental activities
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Dissemination and participation
During this period, dissemination and participation activities were held in two spheres. In relation to the Climate and Energy Plan 2030 (PCE30), which contains 92 actions grouped into 13 avenues of action and 4 transversal areas of action:
- Different formats to disseminate the PCE30 were used:
- Audiovisual capsule: available on the website
- Drop-down summary
- Climate and energy blog
Tutorial to facilitate consultations in the future climate scenario viewer
- Presence at events:
- Attendance at the ceremony of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (Brussels, October 2015)
- Co-organisation of the Seminar Procura + by ICLEI (Barcelona, November 2015)
- Poster presentation at the 8th European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns (Basque Country, April 2016)
- Technical paper CONAMA 2016 (Madrid, November 2016)
- Prize for the AMB's Carbon Management Strategy (Barcelona, May 2018)
- AMB climate strategies at the 3rd Regional Committee of the Cooperative Athenaeum of the Baix Llobregat (Viladecans, September 2018)
- Interview about the Climate and Energy Plan on TV Badalona (4 October 2018, minute 11)
- Interview about the Climate and Energy Plan on the Stock radio programme of La Xarxa (23 November 2018)
- Technical paper CONAMA 2018 (Madrid, November 2018)
- Invited as speakers at conferences of the European Commission (EUSEW), international and national conferences on NZEB building, energy transition and electric mobility, debate tables at the ICAEN and DIBA, clusters and working groups in the renewables sector, media appearances and reports about projects (NZEB, solar-powered vehicle charging stations), and technical assistance and partnerships with the directorates of the Urban Planning, Waste Prevention and Management services and MedCities.
Within the sphere of the Metropolitan Programme of Measures against Air Pollution and the Action Protocol in the Case of Episodes of High Pollution from NO2 or PM10, in order to inform citizens and interested groups about the AMB's actions and measures on air quality, attached is a list of the different internal and external training workshops, interviews and other actions:
- Air quality viewer
- Metropolitan gathering to evaluate measures to combat air pollution. 25 July 2015
- Internal training for workers in the AMB Laboratory. 31 May 2017
- Participation as speakers in the training course on air quality improvement plans of the Barcelona Provincial Council. 24 November 2017
- Interview on air quality on the Atalair programme of Esplugues Televisió (ETV). 8 December 2017
- Internal training for AMB workers. 20 December 2017
- 2nd AMB Environmental Seminar. 25 April 2018
- Interview on El Prat Ràdio. 12 July 2018
- Participation in the Local Technical Seminar "The metropolitan air pollution ordinance" organised by the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia. 13 July 2018
- Interview on sustainable, safe mobility on the Atalair programme of Esplugues Televisió (ETV). 21 September 2018