Barcelona, Spain
First Mover!*
First Movers are cities, local governments, or public institutions (like universities, schools or hospitals) that have at least one meal per week that is completely dedicated to vegetarian foods. This is often alongside other great programs like public education and organic sourcing, but the main criteria is having at least one dedicated vegetarian meal or day per week.
The City Council of Barcelona announced in January 2020 that school canteens will begin serving plant-based food to students for two days each week, as well as offer more seasonal and organic products. It is an initiative that arises in the city’s emergency climate declaration.
With the announcement, Barcelona becomes the first city in the Spanish state to officially adopt measures to reduce the supply of meat to reduce its carbon and ecological footprint.
In October 2019, the mayor of Barcelona joined 13 other mayors affiliated with the C40 in signing a commitment to become a Good Food City, which includes considerably reducing meat served in their public institutions as part of their response to the global climate emergency.
In a declaration during the Mayors Summit of the C40 cities network in Copenhagen, the undersigned mayors committed to align their food procurement to a ‘planetary health diet’ – rich in plant-based food with less food from animal sources – by 2030. This would equate to a maximum average of 300 grams of meat per person per week.
The declaration was signed by Copenhagen, Guadalajara, Lima, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Oslo, Paris, Quezon City, Seoul, Stockholm, Tokyo and Toronto.
Senior Scientist Reyes Tirado at Greenpeace International commented at the event.:
“Greenpeace welcomes the leadership shown by 14 cities across three continents who are reducing meat in response to the climate emergency, and we urge other cities to do the same. To tackle the climate crisis, cut carbon emissions and protect forests, cities need to take action to cut their meat consumption now.”
Currently, livestock emissions, including impacts from deforestation for feed production, are growing and already account for 14.5% of direct global greenhouse gas emissions, which demands immediate action.
Greenpeace’s global challenge:
Our supporters are challenging cities to race to the top on meat reduction to protect our climate, forests, and water. We aim to have at least 50 cities commit to serving two vegetarian meals (no meat or dairy options) in all public canteens weekly by the end of 2019. We expect to have at least 100 global cities make this or a greater commitment toward less and better meat and more plant-rich meals by 2020.