For Valencia, winning the title was a long time coming.
The award, which follows Tallinn last year, Grenoble in 2022 and Lahti in 2021, recognizes the city of 837,000 people for its environmental efforts. 97% of them live within 300 meters from the green urban area.
Decades ago, Valencia’s city planners transformed the dry Turia River into one of Spain’s most beautiful parks, the 9km-long Turia Gardens. It wasn’t a highway, as it might have been considered otherwise.
“That was the beginning of our sustainability journey,” says Antonia García, Executive Director of Valencia’s Green Capital. Garcia said the title is “a reward for the past and an inspiration for the future.”
natural parks, beaches, swamps, lakes
When it comes to the possibilities of the natural environment, Valencia has much more to offer than just the Turia Park.
From the sandy shores of El Cabañal Beach to the Mediterranean Sea, to the fruit and vegetable fields of Huerta, a historic agricultural area on the outskirts of the city, to the south is the Albufera Natural Park, a freshwater lake separated only from the Mediterranean Sea. Near the sand dunes.
A boat tour around the lake takes you through a landscape of marshes, canals, and rice fields. Moreover, the lake is also a paradise for birds, with over 300 species of birds recorded. Further along, boat captain Jaume d’Assi points out a colony of ibises. There were no flamingos to be seen today.
Dashi is pleased that all diesel-powered boats on the lake will soon be replaced by boats with electric motors. “This is better for me in terms of noise,” says the 40-year-old.
Green is emphasized, but there are some discomforts.
To address noise and air quality improvements, Valencia recently converted three main plazas into pedestrian zones. Previously, tourist buses spewing exhaust fumes would pass noisily in front of the cathedral, but now you can breathe easier.
El Confidential newspaper reports that four out of five residents of these areas are in favor of measures to reduce traffic. This figure is based on her 2,358 in-person meetings with City Hall representatives.
Palm trees, olive trees, and planters provide new green accents.
Still, it’s still difficult to portray this city of 840,000 people, with its wide, busy roads and nerve-wracking rush-hour traffic, as an overall climate-friendly place. Antonio Garcia says the bike path network in and around the city has grown to what he calls 190 kilometers, but this balancing act doesn’t always work. “Cycling is part of his DNA as a Valencian,” he says.
However, residents cannot do all their shopping by bicycle or using public transportation. Moreover, by Spanish standards, prices in the central market square, popular with tourists, are very high. This makes it difficult to support local producers and the ‘zero kilometer concept’, which minimizes transport distances and reduces the impact on the environment.
“Just came from Huerta” sounds really nice. But locals wonder why a kilogram of tomatoes should cost more than 5 euros and a kilogram of tangerines more than 3 euros. As a result, many shoppers end up heading to supermarkets with cheap imported food, despite the “zero kilometer initiative”.
This discomfort will continue until March, when Valencia celebrates its annual Fallas festival. It is said that low noise and clean air are indicators of a green capital. But when Fallas arrives, it means one of Spain’s loudest, most polluted and popular festivals.
Exploding fireworks are a source of joy, and hundreds of wooden and papier-mâché figures and ensembles go up in flames and smoke during the Night of Fire, March 19-20, symbolically marking the start of spring. The arrival is upon us. There is no greater burden on the environment, but tradition is tradition. No one wants to go without it, even in this green capital.
cycling Turia river bed
If you like clean air, you should visit before or after Fallas. And the ideal means of transportation is a bicycle. You can pedal through the fertile Huerta fields to the sea and marina. You can also walk along what was once the bed of the River Turia, now one of the longest riverside parks in Europe.
The route is lined with palm trees and pines, and planted with oleanders, orange trees and bougainvillea. Additionally, there is also the Garden of Water in the City of Arts and Sciences, a monumental work by star architect Santiago Calatrava. Here, impressions and colors explode, offering an enchanting atmosphere of complete peace and tranquility.