Activity 1
The first activity of the Youth/Green ImPACT Project is scheduled for 21 January and 18 February 2021. It consists of a dialogue between the City Council and some hundred 13- and 14-year-olds from the Adolescence Council and from Rubí’s secondary schools surrounding the application of the European Green Deal.
Session on 21 January
The politicians participating in this session were:
- Ana María Martínez Martínez, mayor of Rubí
- Andrés Medrano Muñoz, city councilman for Environment, Energy Transition and Animal Welfare in Rubí
- César Luena López, MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
During this first activity, the young people presented the results of a questionnaire on the ecological and energy transition conducted earlier among the student body.
Speech by César Luena López
Eurodeputy César explained to youth that ‘the situation is critical because we have a twofold crisis, biodiversity and climate’. He declared that urgent action is required for that reason across all fields: ‘No matter how many policies are implemented by macro-institutions, we need city councils and youth to be involved, because they are the people on the front line’.
Luena reviewed the three pillars of the European Green Deal: the European Climate Law, which seeks a climate-neutral continent by 2050; the biodiversity strategy, whose aim is to protect and restore nature; and the circular economy, which advocates a new consumption model with products that last longer and are easier to repair and recycle. The MEP told the participating youth that one of the most relevant issues for these lines of action is that the targets are obligatory, as well as imposing fines for noncompliances.
Some of the young people’s questions:
- How much time is calculated for the Green Deal policies to have an impact on fixing or reducing climate change?
- Which country is most advanced in measures to combat climate change? And do you believe it can be replicated?
- If we keep the current consumption model, what could the long-term consequences be? What can we do to ensure that consumption is sustainable over the course of the years?
- If we follow the current model, could much biodiversity be lost over the years?
- Can pandemics affect the environment, and vice-versa?
- Is there any model to minimise fossil-fuel use in any country that could be applied in Catalonia?
Speech by Andrés Medrano Muñoz
City councilman for the Environment, Ecological Transition and Animal Welfare, Andrés Medrano Muñoz, set out all the actions the City Council is implementing to drive the ecological transition locally. ‘As a city, we want to be extremely ambitious, as we committed to the ecological transition many years ago,’ the councilman said. He mentioned all the work being done on energy in the different scopes of action of the Rubí Brilla (Rubí Shines) project, but also the policies related to the environment, air quality, the water cycle, waste reduction and management, and sustainable mobility.
Medrano called out for seeking a balance that would protect the planet and wellbeing of its inhabitants: ‘We’ve got two options: make a sustainable future to live better, have better health and feel better, or jump into the void, giving up what we have now, living worse and being poorer’.
Some of the young people’s questions:
- How can we tackle climate change in Rubí?
- What can be do so that society joins in with protecting the environment?
- What would be the best way to make schools sustainable?
- Could we end up with 100% renewable energies?
- In what year would the proposed energy saving be achieved in Rubí?
- Can the climate crisis affect our health, like the chemical sensitivity syndrome does now?
Speech by Ana María Martínez Martínez
The mayor reconfirmed Rubí’s commitment to achieving a more sustainable and climate-neutral Europe: ‘We aspire, along with our strategic partners like the city of Lappeenranta, the European green capital today, to actively contribute to Europe fulfilling the targets set in the Green Deal’. Ana María Martínez Martínez stated that ‘in this task, you young people are a key piece. Young men and women like you have proven the leadership role you can play in defending the planet.’
At the end of the session, Martínez thanked the youth for the passion and interest they showed during the dialogue, acknowledging it as a motivation when developing ambitious environmental policies: ‘If we’ve learned one thing today, it is that beyond small everyday actions, you young people are challenging us in the public administrations to make truly deep changes’.
Watch the video:
Session on 18 February
The politicians participating in this session were:
- Ana María Martínez Martínez, mayor of Rubí
- Andrés Medrano Muñoz, city councilman for Environment, Energy Transition and Animal Welfare in Rubí
- Moisés Rodríguez Cantón, councilman for City Promotion
- Annabel Cuesta Fabre, councilwoman for Youth
- Víctor García Correas, councilman for Children and Education
- Javier López Fernández, MEP and member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
In this second session, young people from Rubí’s public schools and the Council of Adolescents had the chance to direct their questions and ideas to the political representatives at a round table.
Speech by Javier López Fernández
The Eurodeputy reflected on the meaning of the European Green Deal: ‘We are working for our economy and our society to stop being dependent on fossil fuels, especially oil and gas, with the aim of reducing environmental impact and protecting biodiversity, which has been extremely damaged by our growth model. We must commit to transforming industry and mobility, to reforming our homes to make them more energy efficient – Rubí is a benchmark in this area – and to reforming our energy sources by making a firm commitment to clean renewable energies.’ López Fernández continued that this must all be done hand in hand with other countries and continents: ‘It will be like the race to get to the Moon in the 20th century, although the goal now isn’t space travel, but saving the Earth. And one of the things we see is that it is all related to the way we live and live together in our cities.’ Cities that – as the MEP pointed out – must be more sustainable, with mobility prioritising walking, cycling and electric vehicles over traditional cars; in which working methods change, with a larger presence of teleworking; and where there is no sector specialisation. ‘In short, cities will have to be more inhabitable, because our lifestyles are what are at risk,’ he said during the session. And he said that fortunately ‘the new generations are much more aware and conscious, because they know that the planet depends on what we do today’.
Speech by Ana María Martínez Martínez
The mayor mentioned the first session of the project, when ‘young people and politicians shared the pillars of the European Green Deal and the commitment that must be made to make it real, both by European and municipal institutions. Because, yes, we can steer towards ecological transition locally. And, further, without cities no change is possible.’ The mayor ensured that she is completely sure of that and, in that regard, reminded everyone of the words of city councilman Andrés Medrano Muñoz, who in the last session detailed all the actions being driven forward at a local level to have a greener and more sustainable present and future. ‘Measures on energy efficiency and renewable energies that are being implemented via the Rubí Brilla (Rubí Shines) project, but also measures related to the environment, air quality, the water cycle, waste reduction and management, and sustainable mobility,’ the mayor commented.
During the round table, the young men and women posed several questions to the municipal and European political representatives, including:
- What impact can young people have on improving the environment?
- How can the European Union make electric vehicles less costly and more accessible?
- Are there models to minimise the use of fossil fuels that can be applied in our country?
- How do pandemics impact the environment, and vice-versa?
- Is it possible to achieve 100% renewable energies?
Besides all these questions, they also made proposals, such as creating vertical gardens on public buildings that could be watered with rainwater.
Watch the video:
Watch the video summary of the two sessions:
Related documents
- Results of the questionnaire on ecological and energy transition
- Presentation of Andrés Medrano Muñoz