The challenge of sustainability in the cities of the future

We live in an increasingly urban world.

Of the more than 7,800 million inhabitants on the planet, 55% reside in cities with more than 300,000 people.

The leap has been enormous.

In 1900 only 13% of the population lived in them.

And the number will continue to grow.

By 2050 the population is expected to skyrocket to 10 billion people, where 7 out of 10 will share a storming jungle.

So the way these cores are managed, those already forged and those to come, will be critical to maintaining the health of the Earth.

Because it is in these areas where 70% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions are generated and two-thirds of the primary energy demand is consumed there.

The challenge is to manage mobility, infrastructure and waste,

Real estate (homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals, libraries or other public buildings) account for more than 36% of the European Union's (EU) greenhouse gas emissions, so reducing them is crucial to achieving neutrality climate in the coming years.

“It is the most important sector, in terms of emissions, above the industrial sector,” said Andrés Pan de Soraluce, CEO of Acciona's real estate division.

Much of these buildings are inefficient.

75% of the building stock in the EU wastes energy, according to the European Commission.

"The great challenge is how we regenerate what is already built, how we live and where we live," said Pan de Soraluce, last Monday in Madrid, during a meeting organized by EL PAÍS and Acciona.

David Lucas, Secretary General of the Government's Urban Agenda and Housing.

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In Spain, of the more than 25.2 million houses, some 9.3 million need to be reformed to generate energy savings.

“We are not talking about reaching level A [the highest efficiency category], because in that case, all homes would be in that process.

What we are talking about is achieving efficiency, even if it is minimal”, highlighted David Lucas, Secretary General of the Urban Agenda and Housing.

In a meeting, entitled

, Lucas explained that thanks to Next Generation European funds, it will be possible to face this challenge and rehabilitate the country's homes and buildings.

The objective is to multiply by 10 the number of interventions.

In other words, to go from 31,100 a year now to 300,000 by 2030. And to achieve this, almost 8,000 million euros have been allocated between direct subsidies, guarantees from the Official Credit Institute (ICO) and deductions in the income tax of the Physical persons.

The renovations of the real estate stock in Spain (with an average of 45 years old) faced, until not long ago, various bottlenecks.

On the one hand, actions in neighborhood communities had to be approved by two thirds of the owners.

But this has changed in 2021 with the modification of the Horizontal Property Law, which establishes a simple majority regime for carrying out such works, Lucas explained.

A second obstacle that has been removed has to do with access to finance.

“Many properties had no one to guarantee them to access credit from financial institutions.

This has been resolved with the ICO guarantees”, asserted the representative of the Government.

To all this, a series of fiscal supports have been added.

Andrés Pan de Soraluce, CEO of Acciona's Real Estate division.

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"If we are talking about rehabilitation and regeneration, I think it would be essential for the administrations to have better coordination in the management of the funds," said José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid, during his turn to speak.

The politician explained that since there are three administrations (the central government, the autonomous communities and the town halls) in the distribution of European funds, on some occasions the final delivery of the aid is complicated by the internal procedures that have to be fulfilled.

He also indicated that a greater effort must be made to communicate all the support that exists for the regeneration of properties, since sometimes the programs go unnoticed by the neighboring communities.

"Madrid has 21 districts and 131 neighborhoods and still has many possibilities for improvement," he stressed.

In this change that cities are experiencing, Martínez-Almeida stressed that the historical legacy of city buildings must be taken care of.

“Heritage that is lost, heritage that is never recovered,” she added.

For Mercedes Díez, founding member of CREAR Urban Regeneration, this moment, with a manna of European funds, is unique.

“One of the great opportunities we have now is the rehabilitation of 20th-century architecture, which is the time when the most construction has been done,” she explained during her turn.

The expert has focused on the care and maintenance of the charm of the real estate park.

“There has been a lot of talk about energy certifications, but there has been no talk of architecture or beauty or European identity… it is being neglected,” she commented.

Regarding the resources coming from Europe,

the expert said that they will be insufficient to undertake the challenge that the continent, with the oldest building in the world, requires.

"The most important thing is to get going," stressed Eugenia del Río Villar, treasurer of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM).

“Architects really want to work.

You have to take the funds and give them to the people.”

"We are in an exciting moment, with great challenges... we need resilient, regenerative cities that put people at the center," added Teresa Joven, architecture and projects manager of Acciona's real estate division.

“Architects really want to work.

You have to take the funds and give them to the people.”

"We are in an exciting moment, with great challenges... we need resilient, regenerative cities that put people at the center," added Teresa Joven, architecture and projects manager of Acciona's real estate division.

“Architects really want to work.

You have to take the funds and give them to the people.”

"We are in an exciting moment, with great challenges... we need resilient, regenerative cities that put people at the center," added Teresa Joven, architecture and projects manager of Acciona's real estate division.

José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid.Santi Burgos

"We have thirty years ahead of us and we have to speed up the processes and for that we need regulatory changes," added Asunción Rodríguez Montejano, founder and CEO of Urbanalibi and co-founder and

of Agrega.

After years of growth in the real estate park, we are now experiencing a moment of renewal, mentioned Alicia Regodón, Senior Analyst in Sustainability and Resilience at Unops (United Nations Office for Project Services).

And this wave has to include everyone.

"It has to be accessible to our citizens," Regodón settled at the meeting that was led by Marta González Novo, director of

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