Bilbao City Council has publicly presented “Sustainable Bilbao: 2030 Agenda and SDGs”, the Action Plan for the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the city.

Since 2021, the municipal areas have been participating in this cross-cutting work with the collaboration of UN ETXEA and Coop&Co, in order to “identify the day-to-day actions promoted by institutions, private organisations and citizens themselves, in relation to the values and SDGs, which helps move towards a municipality that is increasingly sustainable, fair, supportive, inclusive, plural and diverse”, explained Mayor Juan Mari Aburto, who presided over the event.

In this respect, regarding the localisation of the 2030 Agenda, Aburto pointed out that “it is essential for citizens to internalise that the most everyday actions always have an impact and to understand the enormous transformative capacity of each decision and attitude that they adopt as part of their daily lives”.

The presentation took place this morning in the Arab Hall, and before many representatives of the City Council, Basque institutions, companies, academic centres, social entities, associations, media and civil society, the Mayor Juan Mari Aburto, in conjunction with Gonzalo Olabarria, Councillor for Culture and Governance; Itziar Urtasun, Councillor for Cooperation, Coexistence and Festivities; and the expert and Co-Director of Coop&Co, Javier Cortés, explained what this innovative proposal consists of, as well as the methodology adopted and the challenges that the City Council faces in the short and long term in this field, and the city’s interest in deploying a strategy.

“Bilbao is committed to becoming a global benchmark in the field of Sustainable Development, as shown by the fact that it will be home to the Headquarters of the Secretariat of the United Nations Local Coalition 2030 to promote the localisation of this Agenda at a universal level”, said the Mayor during his speech.

The Mayor stated that “our goal is to achieve a Bilbao 2030 that is more humane, more liveable, more inclusive and more egalitarian. A more competitive city to attract public and private investment towards a long-term project, transforming the city and its citizens towards sustainability”.

Furthermore, Aburto described the model of metropolis to which he aspires, “a city of values, which is committed to sustainable human development, to a robust social contract, putting people at the centre and leaving no one behind”.