Barcelona and infrastructures: transform or prohibit

Port, airport, railway, and car-related infrastructures are key to the economic competitiveness of Barcelona and its metropolitan area, although, they must face without further delay the challenge of reducing pollutant gas emissions to neutrality. This is the conclusion of a new meeting of the Amics del País association, which brought together four of the main managers of the aforementioned infrastructures: Salvador Alemany, president of the Saba parking company; Mercè Conesa, president of the Port; Ricard Font, president of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC), and Maurici Lucena, president of AENA.

Alemany, with extensive previous experience also in highway management, highlighted and celebrated that today no one questions the need to combat CO2 emissions, but warned that we should not "confuse the enemy." In this regard, he argued that the enemy is not the car, but emissions, and that the solution to the problem should not be only the closure and narrowing of streets. "One cannot seek the solution in attacking infrastructures" or in "complicating the lives of the automotive industry," when it is precisely facing the reconversion towards the electric car.

For the head of Saba —"Barcelona has the best network of urban car parks," he assured—, the solution lies in dialogue, and he recalled that one of Barcelona's historical virtues has been knowing how to coexist with its infrastructures. Alemany asked "not to question" the essential routes to prevent traffic congestion in some areas and thus prevent "parasitic" vehicle circulation as a consequence. Furthermore, he advocated for electrification and efficient regulation of goods distribution, applying, for example, nocturnal logistics that could also use the parking network. The increase in online sales in recent years has translated into an almost exponential increase in delivery operations during daytime hours, with a very significant impact on city traffic.

The head of Saba recalled that one of Barcelona's historical virtues has been knowing how to coexist with its infrastructures

The president of the Port also defended Barcelona's key infrastructures for their great economic value, although she added that now the challenge is to give them "environmental value."For this reason, he advocated that, instead of "prohibiting" the activity, it should be "transformed" to reduce emissions. Conesa explained that his plans involve reaching 2025 with 50% of the docks electrified and achieving emission neutrality by 2050. "We want an emission-free Port, with 5G implemented and energetically self-sufficient," he announced. Like Alemany, he called for dialogue with the city."Barcelona and the Port cannot turn their backs on each other," he stated.

Barcelona enjoys an almost unique strategic advantage. And that is that within a radius of only five kilometers it has the Port, the airport, and the Logistics Activities Zone. Few cities can boast of this, and for this reason, this virtue must be preserved and road and rail connectivities further improved. Of course, as Conesa warned, the pandemic has given us the opportunity to manage better in the future. For example, the arrival and impact of cruise passengers.

Font continued to elaborate on the issue, stating that Barcelona is a globally connected metropolis where the main infrastructures must dialogue with the railway. He also warned of the need to invest in railway mobility as an alternative to the impact of the 500,000 cars that daily travel to Barcelona from other towns in the metropolitan area and the 24,000 trucks that also cross it every day. "We have to consolidate railway highways," he said, and advocated for also using train stations as logistics points in the distribution of goods from e-commerce.

The president of El Prat airport was the last speaker and also the most vehement. Lucena was very clear in warning that the opportunity to invest 1,700 million euros in the expansion of the airport with a new satellite terminal and the extension of the third runway that would turn it into a great international hub cannot be lost. This would allow managing 90 operations ---landings and takeoffs--- per hour and reaching 70 million annual passengers, well above the 52 million before the pandemic.

Lucena urged Catalan institutions to seize this opportunity and reach a consensus before next summer

Lucena urged Catalan institutions to seize this opportunity and reach a consensus before next summer, as it is planned to be able to bring this expansion to the Council of Ministers in September.It may be a train ---in this case better a plane--- that won't pass again.Just like the rest of the speakers, he insisted on the need to fight against CO2 emissions, and set the horizon of 2040 for the airport to generate zero pollution thanks to the replacement of solid fuels with hydrogen in airplanes.

In conclusion, the four managers agreed on protecting the infrastructures that should give Barcelona competitiveness to face international markets and on their commitment to the fight against pollution, a matter about which no one now champions denialism regarding the consequences of climate change. In return, they asked for dialogue and complicity with the city authorities to transform their activities instead of limiting them.