Metropolis General Assembly

| Subject: International Relations

The new work plan includes projects and services led by the AMB

Image of the online meeting

On 30th November, was held the General Assembly of Metropolis online, in which the AMB was chosen to hold the position of co-president of Metropolis, in charge of issues relating to climate change and the ecological transition.

Ada Colau, president of the AMB, and Ernest Maragall, Vice-president of the Area for International Relations and Cooperation, took part in this assembly organised by Metropolis, the global association of large cities and metropolitan areas, which has 141 members and is based in Barcelona.

New action plan

During the meeting, Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou, was named president of Metropolis for the next year and a half, while in the second half of the mandate the president will be Claudia López, Mayor of Bogotá.

The meeting also served to approve the new 2021-2023 Metropolis Action Plan, which hinges on four key aspects linked to the process of metropolisation: urban growth, resilience, public legitimacy and digital disruption.

This new work plan includes projects and services led by the AMB, such as the Metropolis Observatory, the City Managers Community and a number of pilot projects. With regard to the latter, 5 new pilot projects have been approved, two of which involve the AMB: one in the area of green infrastructure, led by Mexico City, and another in the area of mobility, led by the South African province of Gauteng.

The AMB's support of Metropolis

Colau stressed the importance of Metropolis and its role in the various United Nations institutions. She also expressed the AMB's commitment to advancing the organisation's climate and feminist agenda.

Meanwhile, Ernest Maragall reaffirmed the AMB's support of Metropolis and defended the need to make the organisation stronger. He called on participants to make an effort to push the Metropolis network into other places of the world, such as the United States and Asia. Maragall stressed the fact that, despite the increasing prominence of metropolises in terms of population, this position does not correspond to the importance they have within their respective states due to the responsibilities they assume. He also touched upon the manner in which the complex reality of covid-19 is affecting metropolises and how, in this regard, metropolises can contribute to global agendas such as the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda (Habitat III) and the Paris Agreement.

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