PESCARA, 15 May – “Pescara is becoming a large metropolitan city. The challenge of sustainability in achieving objectives is essential, unavoidable. We cannot continue to think and plan as it was done ten or 15 years ago. This awareness has produced an impactful program in actions and principles and to demonstrate this important turning point I have signed up to the initiative of the Network of Sustainable Municipalities, obtaining the ‘Sustainable Candidate’ logo, which will commit me, once I become mayor, to putting a whole series of actions are underway.” This was stated by the candidate for mayor of Pescara for the centre-left coalition, Carlo Costantini, the only aspiring mayor to have obtained the ‘Sustainable Candidate’ certificate. Costantini himself, in during a press conference that took place this morning in his electoral committee in via Nicola Fabrizi, together with Simona Barba, candidate for councilor on the “Avs – Radici in Comune” list.
“The ‘Sustainable Candidate’ brand commits me, once in government of the city – underlines Costantini – to include sustainability in the Municipal Statute: the protection of the environment, the protection of future generations and the concept of sustainable development have entered the Italian Constitution and it is a duty of local governments to implement these principles. It will also be necessary to adopt a voluntary monitoring system of policies with local sustainability indicators to objectively, scientifically and authoritatively measure the effect of the administration’s choices on all areas of Agenda 2030: environmental, economic, social and institutional”. “We will then have to create the Municipality’s Sustainability Report – continues the mayoral candidate – in order to monitor the results of the actions, improve the performance of the indicators, communicate the goals achieved and involve the local communities. Finally, it will be necessary to spread the importance of sustainable development among the local community through initiatives, starting with schools, and a participatory process aimed at citizens, businesses and associations for the definition of the Municipality’s strategic planning tools. Once our coalition is called upon to administer the city, Pescara will do its part with concrete actions and not just words. We will follow a very specific path, aimed at achieving the major sustainability objectives with the strategic planning of the municipal administration”.
“The Network of Sustainable Municipalities – recalls Simona Barba – is the largest national association in Europe of Municipalities, Provinces, metropolitan cities and Regions that are dedicated to sustainable development and the territorialisation of the Agenda 2030 Objectives with voluntary monitoring of local policies . It is a community for sharing good practices and experiences, an innovative project, a network of services and partnerships useful to local administrations”.
“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – explains the candidate – is a program of concrete actions for people, the planet and prosperity, signed in September 2015 by the governments of the 193 UN member countries. It encompasses 17 Sustainable Development Goals, guiding the world on the path ahead over the next 15 years. Cities are the most exposed front, if we consider that in 2030 70% of the world population will live in cities. Precisely for this reason, one objective of the Agenda, number 11, is dedicated to the concrete actions to be carried out to make cities livable and sustainable. The protagonism of municipalities and local communities, from below, therefore becomes essential”.
