Málaga

In the purpose of making our City what we want them to be, we register in the Second Strategic Planning of Málaga our vision and targets clearly by means of public-private consensus among of the stakeholders of the city, classifying our strategy in 4 basis:

–          Málaga as a seaside city, developing new projects and activities that consolidate Málaga as a tourist city.

–          Málaga as a cultural city, which stress the importance of the culture as a social cohesion element and generator of economic activity.

–          The urban revitalization of the city, where the sustainability is the cornerstone.

–          Málaga as a City of Knowledge, trying to improve our infrastructures and equipment, promoting the entrepreneurial and innovating culture by means of new technologies.

At the same time, we have introduced the concept of “Málaga Smart City”, by the use of ICT and innovation in public services to improve our management, reduce costs and generate value for citizens.

Focusing on the actions that we have undertaken to provide intelligence to our city, we started by incorporating technology to the services management.

For that, we act on waste management, transport management, smart grids, water management, the traffic control centre and on the emergency centre.

As a Public Administration, we should provide a universal citizen access to the services, which heavily depends on the networks coverage (energy, water, sanitation, telecommunications, educative, etc.). As a result, cities are more sustainable because the social and territorial cohesion is higher,

Because of that, the following steps are utilized:

–          Apply measures to accomplish savings in the City Council.

–          Make our actions and services in the most efficient way.

–          Pointing the citizen as the central focus of every task.

In our Smart city model, we point the citizen as the central focus and we offer them advanced services by using Information and Communication Technologies.

Citizens demand to know the details of the government management, so we are using the new technologies to implement the open government, and therefore, have a real connection with citizens.

To carry out initiatives, it is essential that the services are efficient enough and on the other hand, for an appropriate management of the city, how we choose the monitoring indicators, how we collect and interpret, and how we make them available to citizens and companies, is very important, giving us a lot of opportunities for improvement.

The sustainable mobility is essential for our city model. Currently, more than the 45% of the CO2 emissions produced in Málaga are due to the transport. So we are paying attention to this issue and make transport cleaner and more efficient.

The Málaga City Council tends to favour the incorporation of new business lines in the city by means of Technological Incubators and Enterprises accelerator, the creation of a Smart Cities Demonstration Centre, Open Data use or the new Digital Centre for digital industry training.

Malaga City Council has a broad experience in sustainable integrated urban development based on the objectives of the Urban Agendaas a strategic reference framework for our Cities, from where sectorial plans are related and connected in an integrated way.

The Malaga Urban Agenda was updated in 2015 taking into account the aforementioned guidelines. It promotes the strategic objectives of Spain and the European Commission. It is the strategic reference framework for Malaga from both a medium (2020) to long-term perspective (2050). It is also linked to the EC’s concept of integrated urban development that works towards a durable improvement in the field of economic, environmental, climate and social conditions of urban areas.

The new Malaga Urban Agenda is the reference strategic framework of the city and it is related to the integrated urban development concept reflected in Article 7 of the ERDF. It is also linked to the interrelated actions which aim towards a long-lasting improvement in the economic, environmental, climate and social conditions of a determined urban area.

Regarding our Climate Change Policy, Malaga City Council is one of the signatories of The New Covenant of Mayors, with the aim of reducing CO2/GHG emissions by at least 40% by 2030 and to adopt an integrated approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The main Municipal areas have collaborated in the development of the Action Plan for Sustainable Energy in Malaga, in order to achieve the targets set in the Covenant of Mayor. This plan provides the guidelines for encouraging energy savings and efficiency and the deployment of renewable energy solutions to contribute and move towards a more sustainable City.

Malaga City Council in a resolution passed unanimously by all political parties, has endorsed the proposals adopted at the COP 21  Summit in Paris December 2015, taking the following measures:

1. Reduce GHG emissions by 28% by 2020.

2. Hiring progressively renewable energy supply for all municipal areas.

3. Promoting sustainable mobility, applied to the municipal fleet, so any vehicle must be electric.

4. Increase biomass or vegetation with native species act as sinks for CO2.

5. The City Council, its agencies and companies should be neutral in CO2 emissions by 2030.

The City of Malaga has been collaborating for a long time with Spanish, European, American and African cities within an urban development framework. The Observatory has coordinated homogeneous working systems related to strategic planning, together with the development of the Urban Agenda 21 and specific projects associated with the improvement of the environment.

Our participation should be highlighted in national networks such as:

–  The Spanish Network of Cities for the Climate: it connects those cities which are committed to sustainable development and climate protection. Its aim is to become a forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience, as well as an instrument of technical support for the Spanish local governments, offering tools that will enable them to achieve a sustainable development model.

–  HABITAT: Good Urban Practices. The United Nations Centre for Urban Settlements.

–  Spanish Network of Smart Cities: the objective of this association of cities is to exchange experiences and work together in order to develop a sustainable management model and to improve the quality of life of the citizens. It deals with different aspects such as energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, e-government, helping citizens or safety.

–  Network of Sustainable Observatories: it joins all the observatories which work with different aspects related to sustainable development. Its main objective is to provide a meeting place for the exchange of information and experiences, providing a space for reflection and open dialogue, not only for the members, but also for whomever that could be interested in sustainable development.

We are also part of international networks such as:

–  CAT-MED: Mediterranean network for the promotion of sustainable urban models. It is led by Malaga. Its aim is to integrate defined priorities of the CAT-MED Project as common denominators for the neighbourhoods and sustainable cities.

–  Eurocities: it is the network of major European cities. It is committed to placing the issue of cities and their economic, political and social development onto the European agenda. It intended to form a political platform to act as a channel for communicating with the European institutions and to become recognised as a significant partner in the European community and of each member state.

–  European Network of Living Labs: it is the international federation of benchmarked Living Labs in Europe and worldwide.

–  LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International): a unique international network bringing together cities and lighting professionals engaged in using light as a major tool for sustainable urban, social and economic development.

–  RETE Association for the Collaboration between Ports and Cities: is an international non-profit organisation engaged in promoting cooperation between ports and cities.

–  ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability: association of local governments that represents the interests of local authorities within the United Nations and in international policy forums.

–  CIVITAS: it is a network of cities orientated to cleaner better transport in Europe and beyond.

–  URBELAC: Network of European, Latin American and Caribbean cities for integrated and sustainable urban development.

Through these networks, Malaga has generated a large amount of contacts in the field of sustainable urban development through networking and the activities carried out in the different fields.

On the other hand, the large number of projects in which we have participated, and still participate, has provided us with the contact and relationship with cities all over the world, managing authorities, technical offices and other programme managers at national and international level. We also have a large network of potential partners, both public and private, when carrying out projects. We take the capitalization of good practices very seriously, in order to help other cities, with similar characteristics, to tackle similar problems.