Barcelona's superblocks hailed as successful model at C40 World Mayors Summit

Barcelona mayor Ada Colau has played an important role at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires this week, an event that aims to bring together political and business leaders to showcase innovative ideas to build a sustainable and equitable future.

The Catalan capital currently holds the vice-presidency of the forum, and Ada Colau was one of the featured speakers at the event that also included the likes of Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, American politician John Kerry, among many others.

The C40 World Mayors Summit hailed Barcelona's superblock project, which sees blocks of streets mostly pedestrianized and more greenery added to urban environments, as a successful model to follow. 

As part of the meeting, cities worldwide shared their "transformation models," such as the 15-minute city in Paris or the Low Traffic Neighborhoods of London. 

According to the city council, Berlin, Vienna, Rotterdam, Bogotá and Los Angeles are some of the cities that have adopted the Catalan capital's superblock model. In 2 years, Barcelona has received more than 250 requests to learn about the model.

The superblock project in Barcelona has seen pathways enlargened, entire streets pedestrianized on certain days and new play areas for children and other seating areas created in areas that were previously dominated by vehicular traffic. 

  

Colau calls for cities to lead fight against climate change 

On the Friday of the summit, Ada Colau proposed that large cities be the "allies" of the European Union in the fight against the climate crisis and against the social and economic crises arising from Russia's war in Ukraine.

However, the Barcelona En Comú leader warned that, for them to be effective, local administrations must have more funding and more regulatory capacity to act. 

The summit also reiterated to states and governments the importance of a "fair winter" for citizens, calling for a guarantee of basic services that leaves nobody without energy or food.

Pledge for 50 million green jobs

One of the biggest commitments the world summit pledged is to create 50 million jobs in the ecological transition sector by 2030. 

The World Mayors Summit gathered together leaders representing a combined population of more than 700 million people, accounting for a quarter of the world's GDP. 

Speaking to media in Argentina, Colau said that members of the C40 network have come together to convey a message of "hope" and to "fight the denialist discourses" they face.

"The dilemma is not economy or ecology," the Barcelona mayor said. "The dilemma is economy of the past, or economy of the future." 

Colau also said that the Barcelona council has plans to create 45,000 jobs in the coming years with the further development of its superblock model.