Supporting urban greening and social justice in the city of Barcelona

This case study was originally published on the Climate-ADAPT website – for more information please visit the case study page. Climate-ADAPT aims to support Europe in adapting to climate change by helping users to access and share data and information. The platform includes the Climate-ADAPT database that contains quality checked information that can be easily searched.

Summary

Increasing Barcelona’s green spaces and tackling population density have been the city’s core policy strategy to deal with climate change impacts like flooding and heatwaves.Specifically, the city administration aims to increase the connectivity between single green areas and between urbanized and green areas, and to increase greenery in the most dense and less green zones of the city.

Such improvements, which increase the attractiveness of residential areas, can easily translate into rising housing prices and rents, forcing less well-off inhabitants to leave their neighbourhoods. The city of Barcelona is undertaking measures to keep housing prices low and prevent such effects of green grentrification, in order to green Barcelona in a socially just way.

You can read the full case study on the Climate-ADAPT website.

Further resources

• Barcelona green infrastructure and biodiversity plan 2020
• Urban Environmental Justice Struggles in Barcelona
• Barcelona for Climate
• Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2021. Barcelona Nature Plan 2021 – 2030, Ajuntament de Barcelona; Area of Urban Ecology, Barcelona, Spain
• BCNUEJ, 2021. Policy and planning tools for urban green justice. Fighting displacement and gentrification and improving accessibility and inclusiveness to green amenities
• PLA CLIMA. Resum executu. Effecte illa de calor
• Superilla Barcelona. Cap a la ciutat que volem
• Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J. J., Masip, L., & Pearsall, H. (2018). Assessing green gentrification in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods: a longitudinal and spatial analysis of Barcelona. Urban Geography, 39(3), 458-491.