Local administration

Cities face climate change impacts that affect multiple areas, services, and sectors, where local-level planning and management can provide solutions.

The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy includes the “Mayors Adapt” initiative, aimed at engaging European cities in adopting climate change adaptation measures.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Network of Cities for Climate is the support instrument provided by the FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces) to help local governments tackle climate change. It serves as a tool to implement national climate policy objectives at the local level. Since its creation in 2005, the Spanish Network of Cities for Climate has developed projects and tools to help its member municipalities implement awareness, mitigation, and adaptation measures against climate change, as well as acting as a forum for exchanging knowledge and experiences in the field.

Municipal Vulnerability Assessments

Many Spanish cities have conducted their own impact and vulnerability assessments at the local level, particularly those that have developed a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) under the Covenant of Mayors, as it is part of the methodology for drafting SECAPs (LIFE Adaptate).

Among the municipalities that have carried out climate risk and vulnerability assessments (ERYVCC) are:

There are also examples of provincial-level assessments:

Regional-level vulnerability analyses have also been conducted, broken down by municipalities:

Municipal Climate Change Plans

An increasing number of municipalities have climate change strategies or plans that include objectives and actions related to adaptation. Among them, municipalities that are signatories of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM2030) have already developed or are in the process of drafting action plans. According to the Covenant of Mayors Office (CoMO), 785 Spanish municipalities have signed this commitment, 74.14% of which are municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, while 4.71% are medium-sized and large cities (>50,000 inhabitants). Here are some examples:

In the case of Andalusian municipalities, Law 8/2018 of 8 October on measures to combat climate change and the transition to a new energy model in Andalusia establishes the mandatory development of Municipal Climate Change Plans (PMCC). A methodological guide has been created to assist in this process.

Adaptation Plans

Some cities and provinces have approved specific adaptation plans, including:

Manuals and Methodological Guides

Local Climate Change Policies