Barcelona + Sostenible

The city of Barcelona wanted to materialise its local Agenda 21 with the publication of the Citizen Commitment to Sustainability 2002-2012 on 9 June 2002.

This framework document was the result of four years of intensive diagnoses, proposals and consensus-building to define the objectives to be achieved in order to move towards a more sustainable city. The Municipal Council for the Environment and Sustainability led this process with more than 100 representatives from environmental and civic organisations, businesses, universities, political groups and institutions. In the first phase (1998-99), the goal was to define Barcelona's main challenges and the objectives to be achieved. Next, the Council asked all the citizens to participate in developing a collective commitment through district debates, sessions, thematic dialogues and a virtual forum. As a result of the Council's proposals and contributions from the public, the first draft of the Commitment was drawn up, which was reached through an innovative participatory process.

The final document consisted of ten overarching objectives with ten lines of action to move forward in each of them over a period of ten years (2002-2012). Once approved, the Council invited the city's organisations to sign the Agreement. In 2012, the Commitment was renewed for the second time with a participatory process among the members of the More Sustainable Barcelona Network. This framework document is valid until 2022 and currently serves as a roadmap for the More Sustainable Barcelona Network.

In 2012, Agenda 21 changed its name and image to Barcelona + Sustainable [More Sustainable Barcelona]. Currently, more than 1,000 organisations, companies, schools and institutions have joined this network and are working in accordance with the principles of Barcelona's Agenda 21 to promote initiatives that contribute to achieving the ten overarching objectives of the Citizen Commitment.

Throughout the course of Agenda 21 and More Sustainable Barcelona, four conventions have been held. They were events designed with the aim of assessing what has been done so far and setting future goals, always in a participatory manner.

• Signatories’ 2005 and 2010-11 Convention
  In 2005 and 2010-2011, the First and Second Signatories' Conventions were held¹ with the aim of giving visibility to and reinforcing the network of sustainability agents, collectively assessing the achievements in relation to the Commitment’s objectives, identifying challenges and promoting the submission of future proposals.
• Signatories’ Convention 2012
  In 2012, more than 200 organisations attended the Third Signatories' Convention to establish the contents of the new Agreement. Fourteen intense and very productive working sessions of debate and consensus were held, along with two sessions in which secondary school students were able to submit proposals.
• More Sustainable Barcelona Convention 2017-18 Opens a new window
  On 25 January 2018, around 300 people from more than 150 organisations from the More Sustainable Barcelona Network met to analyse the first five years of the Citizen Commitment for Sustainability (2012-2022) and set future goals. More Sustainable Barcelona 2018 Convention website Opens a new window.
  
  

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which brought together heads of state, representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations, municipal leaders, scientists, technicians and entrepreneurs from 179 countries. At that worldwide meeting, also known as Earth Summit, the main environmental, social and economic problems facing humanity were analysed. Over the course of two days, strategies for achieving a development model aimed at meeting the current needs without compromising the future generations’ capacity were discussed.

One of the most important results of the Earth Summit was Agenda 21, a work plan that aims to guide government policy and management towards sustainable development. Agenda 21 was not just a declaration of principles, it was an open-ended programme of actions to tackle humanity’s global and local problems from an ethical perspective. Two years after the Earth Summit, the first European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns Opens a new window was held in Aalborg (Denmark). At that meeting, the Aalborg Charter Opens a new window was drawn up. It is a document in which European cities committed themselves to participate in the local Agenda 21 initiatives by developing programmes that allow progress towards urban sustainability.

The importance of locally translating overarching objectives into specific actions was demonstrated at the World Summit on Sustainable Development Opens a new window held in Johannesburg in 2002.  Around the world, hundreds of cities and towns began to work towards Agenda 21, demonstrating the importance of local initiatives on global issues. The city of Barcelona also joined Agenda 21, and that is how the programme currently known as More Sustainable Barcelona was born.