Albacete, Madrid, May 17, 2022.- Achieving the objectives of the 2030 Agenda will only be possible with the commitment of Local Governments. This is being confirmed in Albacete by the more than three hundred participants in the conference on “Local Governments and implementation of the 2030 Agenda”, promoted by the Network of Local Entities for the 2030 Agenda, of the FEMP. The President of this Network, José Hila, Mayor of Palma, has indicated that this commitment exists, and that the Network itself demonstrates this, which at two years old is the “youngest” of the FEMP networks and, nevertheless, the largest, as it has 417 members who have joined it voluntarily.

As he highlighted in his opening remarks, “the SDGs are a universal agenda and pact” and one of the most successful United Nations programs. For the FEMP, he explained, they represent a priority objective that led it to establish both the Network and a specific working Commission in the certainty that Local Governments “are the protagonists of this challenge that the SDGs represent”.

In his view, fighting climate change, working for social justice and for an economically sustainable world, are principles that summarize the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda; and making them known among all Local Governments, large and small, is one of the objectives of the 2030 Network. And this dissemination task includes conferences, exchange of experiences and also “copying” the successful actions of others.

The President of the Provincial Council of Albacete, Santiago Cabañero, has agreed that Local Governments are “essential” in the process of implementing the SDGs because “80% of the targets” that are indicated in those Objectives “call upon Local Governments, the only ones capable of “bringing the 2030 Agenda to the last corner” and of “translating these targets into public and tangible objectives”.

In his remarks he has emphasized the defense of environmental, social and economic sustainability that the SDGs represent, and has stressed that this sustainability will not be possible if there are overpopulated cities and depopulated rural areas, and in this regard he has insisted that “the Agenda must be an instrument against depopulation from a cross-cutting perspective”. For Cabañero “this has to be the decade of action”, of the commitment of Local Governments.

For his part, the Mayor of Albacete, Emilio Sáez, has highlighted the progress of his city in implementing the SDGs, emphasizing that the City Council’s budgets are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, and has detailed that “out of every 100 euros, 40 are dedicated to planet, 30 to people and the rest to partnerships and prosperity”. Local policies on energy, transport or “open forums” are equally in line with sustainability criteria. In the opinion of the Network’s president, José Hila, Albacete’s is one of the pioneering models, “to be copied” in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Dialogues with Administrations and Social Agents, and collaboration with the University

The Conference, which is being held today at the Provincial Council of Albacete and tomorrow at the University, will enable dialogues with all those involved in achieving the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda.

Thus, this morning, at the headquarters of the Provincial Council, two dialogue sessions are being held: one on multilevel involvement in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the territory, in which local, provincial and regional officials are participating; and another on citizen participation and social agents in that implementation, in which trade unions and social representatives are present.

The University of Castilla-La Mancha will be the venue tomorrow Wednesday, at 10:30, for the signing of an agreement between the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and the FEMP, in the graduation hall of the Benjamín Palencia building. The Rector, Julián Garde, and the General Secretary of the FEMP, Carlos Daniel Casares Díaz, will be the signatories. This will be followed by the II Colloquium of the Network of Local Entities for the 2030 Agenda and Academic Entities, in which, after the welcome ceremony, the Mayor of Palma and President of the Network, José Hila, will speak.

Media attention is scheduled for 10:15 in the lobby of the graduation hall.