City of San Sebastián – Donostia

The Basque city of San Sebastián, home to about 187,000 inhabitants, is the administrative capital of the province of Guipúzcoa and a major culture and tourist hub in Northern Spain.

As a coastal city, San Sebastián and its people, nicknamed the Donostiarras, are aware that they are on the frontline of climate change and therefore have to strengthen their resilience and take ambitious climate and energy action.

In June 2018, the city has adopted its long-term roadmap “Plan de Acción Klima 2050 de Donostia / San Sebastián”, which reflects a clear commitment to tackle climate change and boost the transformation of the energy system.

Since then, the long-term action plan has become the central roadmap for all municipal policies. This also requires transforming the local governance structure. Every municipal department is now assigned sector-related targets and is obliged to abide by the road map. This provides a coherent and integrated planning strategy that can be referred to as ‘climate mainstreaming’.