disrupted the local labor market and increased unemployment. and be affordable for everyone (TES, 2015). The TES plan reflects The expected recovery is on the way, with opportunities in the the city’s commitment to reducing energy consumption. The City creative, health, science, and IT industries emerging. Council has defined an approach that is based on improvements in energy efficiency, self-consumption, and responsible The renewed BSIP ensures that everyone in the city has access energy use. The City Council believes that present-day energy to fair job conditions. Specific measures illustrate the BSIP’s regulations are creating problems that have to be resolved, and priorities: it also takes the view that citizen collaboration is a strategy that •Guaranteeing the e poyent insertion of people at risk needs to be deployed to achieve the aims of the TES. and guarantee compliance with a 2 percent target for the presence of disabled staff in companies; Buildings’ energy consumption represents a high part of •Tracking and monitoring the social return of the municipal the city’s total energy consumption. Municipal buildings and program to continuously improve it; facilities account for around 50 percent of the total municipal •Offering training programs for unemployed people at risk energy expenditure (TES, 2015). The adaptation of adequate of exclusion; solutions would promote smart building strategies within a •Promoting social innovation ideas and initiatives; push to readapt the city to meet tomorrow’s needs. •Promoting ICT access for all citizens and fighting digital exclusion. 5.2 The comprehensive lighting renewable plan Political conflicts (for example, the independence referendum of The City Council implemented the Comprehensive Lighting 2017), social movements against tourism’s influence on the city Renewable Plan 2018-2020 (CLRP). The plan aims to increase (for example, demonstrations against Airbnb’s presence), and energy security, energy efficiency, and smart energy management, protests about unemployment or in response to the pandemic all of which are linked to the UN’s SDGs. The new technologies have happened recently in Barcelona, increasing tensions between used within the CLRP help to distribute energy more effectively, Catalonia and the centralized Spanish authorities and state. These provide lighting uniformly across the city, and improve visibility huge uncertainties are calling into question the integrity of Spain (Ajuntament Barcelona, 2020). The plan has brought about the and fueling ideological disagreement between a proindependence implementation of lighting technologies such as LED lighting and sector of the Catalan community and the rest of the country. low-energy bulbs in more than two hundred streets, with over ten thousand LED lights now installed across the city (CLRP, 2017) 5. Housing and energy 5.3 The neighborhood plan This housing and energy section aims to centralize innovation related to infrastructure and energy within Barcelona’s smart Under Barcelona’s Neighborhood Plan (NP), more than twenty- city programs. Across the world, current energy consumption one million euros will be spent on projects to develop quality patterns are generating negative externalities such as climate housing (Ajuntament Barcelona, 2020). This initiative will help change and so need to be reconsidered. Moreover, more and citizens by providing advice and guidance to vulnerable groups, more people are packed into urban areas, increasing the need and around 84 percent of the funding has been allocated to for reliable housing options and sustainable energy models. renovating houses (Ajuntament Barcelona, 2020). This program The connection between energy consumed and the way in which aims to correct past failures to maintain Barcelona’s buildings, we live is clear. Synergies could improve people’s quality of whose lack of insulation and heat leakage exacerbate their life by reducing energy costs and, more importantly, providing energy consumption. sustainable energy. To date, the program has made use of multidisciplinary teams 5.1 Housing energy and sustainability of architects, social workers, and administrative and legal specialists, providing advice, reviewing cases, and helping In Barcelona, a strategy to foster local and renewable energy in communities of residents in the renovation process. So far, housing was defined by the City Council within the Transition to 67 percent of people contacted by the teams have applied Energy Sovereignty (TES) plan, which was approved in 2016. The for renovation subsidies (Ajuntament Barcelona, 2020). This City Council allocated 130 million euros to the implementation initiative has helped the city to improve energy efficiency. In of its energy model, which is based on making 100 percent of particular, the windows and doors renovation program, part of the city’s energy come from renewable, zero-emissions sources the NP, has been implemented in Raval and the Gothic Quarter. 100 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021