The project by the European Commission endorses pioneering policies such as the Climate Plan, the Climate Emergency Declaration and the upcoming moves to adapt the city of Barcelona to the 2030 Agenda with the goal of fulfilling the 17 sustainable development goals by the UN.

The European mission aims to turn Barcelona and the other 99 cities chosen into centres of innovation to help all European cities become climate neutral by 2050.

Affiliated to the Third Deputy Mayor’s Office for 2030 Agenda, Digital Transition, Sports and Territorial and Metropolitan Coordination, headed by Laia Bonet, the new commissioner takes over from Miquel Rodríguez Planas, who becomes the cabinet chief for the First Deputy Mayor’s Office. Bàrbara Pons Giner’s experience will help speed up the energy transition in the city and lead funding opportunities for the mission.

Specialist in sustainable urban development, cities and climate change, architect, with a doctorate in urban planning and a master’s degree in landscape from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Pons Giner has ample experience in both the private sector and the public administration.

Positions she has held include the Director-General for Territorial Planning with the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, from 2007 to 2011, and as part of the team to improve the quality of urban planning with Madrid City Council from 2011 to 2012. She has spoken at numerous seminars and congresses and has taught at various national and international universities, notably George Washington University. From 2014 to 2016 she coordinated research on sustainable urban planning for the InterAmerican Development Bank, for the Emerging Sustainable Cities initiative.

Pons Giner was already working for Barcelona City Council, for the Directorate for the Promotion of the City, a role she combined with her post as an affiliated professor on the Global Studies degree at Pompeu Fabra University.