Greetings to all, to mayors and mayoresses, for being here today at this steering committee.

And I especially want to congratulate and thank Sr. Rodríguez-Larreta, the Mayor of Buenos Aires, for this initiative and for organising the World Mayors Summit.

Firstly, I would like to highlight what I consider to be a success: our commitment to creating green jobs, which we are going to launch as the C40.

In this regard, I would like to share three thoughts:

Firstly, there is no economic progress without sustainability. There is no progress without the planet.

Ignoring or delaying action on the effects of climate change is not only an attack on the planet, it is also a bad economic idea, which only benefits a few.

It is a bad economic decision because it belongs to an outdated, failed model.

The best way of promoting the economy is to protect the planet.

We know that the economic costs of climate change will be much greater than the cost of stopping it or adapting to it.

Increasing emissions is therefore a really bad investment, ruination.

The most competitive economy will be the first one to become sustainable and innovative, not the last.

The dilemma is not between the economy or ecology, but rather between the past or the future. And this is the message we should transmit to our societies and states.

Secondly, we want a green and fair future.

Because the solutions to both the economic and ecological crises are inseparable: if it isn’t green, it isn't fair, and if it isn't fair, it isn't green.

In a possible context of inflation and unemployment, we must seek responses that don't come under “business as usual”: exploiting the planet and the working class.

We can create decent jobs, and in future sectors.

And in cities, we are raising our voices because we are already doing so, like Barcelona, through initiatives such as the well-known Superblocks, among others. We are creating over 44,000 green jobs.

We need to act, and public intervention will be decisive in this sense.

Which brings me to my third thought:

We must take action to redistribute the costs of the current crisis in a fair way.

Let's be clear: the current energy crisis is generating poverty for a majority, but also enormous wealth for a minority.

An example: The three main Spanish electricity companies increased their profits by 24% in the first quarter of 2022.

Let those who pollute most and who are reaping the greatest profits assume the greatest part of the cost.

We must guarantee a fair winter.

We must demand that the big companies profiting from this situation, such as electricity companies, also assume most of the cost.

We must think about suspending evictions, capping rent prices, prohibiting power cuts, establishing minimum vital electricity consumption, capping electricity prices (what is known as the “Iberian exception” should be the “European norm”), as well as capping the price of basic products in our shopping baskets.

It is time to vindicate the role of the public sector, either as a regulator and transformer of the market, or as a promoter and protector of society, without inhibitions.

Nothing of what I have said is revolutionary: it has been done before, or it is being done now in some of our countries, by governments with all types of ideologies.

And I will finish with a final call: this isn't only a job for cities. And not only for institutions. We need to bring together national governments, companies, trade unions, activists... everyone.