Viladecans was honoured to participate in the event in Seville ‘EU cities acting for just transitions and climate adaptation’organised by UIA and Seville City Council on how EU cities can collaborate through their innovative initiatives to achieve just transition and adaptation to climate change. Carles Ferreiro, Director of Business and Innovation Services of Viladecans City Council, presented the Vilawatt energy project at a panel discussion on skills for a green future, in which the cities of Paris and Amsterdam also participated.
Ferreiro highlighted how the transformation process we are currently undergoing requires a different approach to public policies, not focusing on them as individual projects, but as common long-term challenges. That is why the Viladecans 2030 Strategy proposes working through missions, in which, naturally, sustainability is a cross-cutting aspect.
Vilawatt
Ferreiro stressed that just transition is part of Viladecans' DNA and with the Vilawatt project (launched in 2016 and currently being replicated in other European cities through the URBACT program). Ferreiro highlighted that setting up a local energy community -a new axis of work of Vilawatt and a key element for the ecological transition- is a challenge in itself, and is making it possible to experiment with other ways of doing things and putting new skills into practice; not only in the field of sustainable construction, or in technical aspects, such as the installation of solar panels, but also in the management of a new ecosystem that integrates very diverse agents who are not usually used to working together.
Viladecans HUB for sustainable construction
On the other hand, the City Council, together with a group of companies located in the city, is promoting the creation of the Viladecans HUB, a space to jointly develop innovative projects in the field of sustainable construction, in order to encourage multidisciplinary work.
The debate, chaired by Eddy Adams, a UIA expert, also included the results and conclusions of the UIA's capitalisation work, a report to which Viladecans has contributed.
