Catalonia to invest billions to cool public buildings
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Salvador Illa, the president of Catalonia, Spain, announced a plan to spend 2.5 billion euros to install air conditioning in all 2,530 publicly owned educational centers before 2031.
He presented the strategy during a conference discussing the future, explaining that rising temperatures in classrooms prompted the initiative. The government will begin by equipping 100 schools with air conditioning by the 2027-2028 school year, allocating 100 million euros for this first phase.
Officials selected these initial schools based on technical assessments, operational considerations, and the presence of vulnerable populations susceptible to heat waves. This first investment builds on an existing effort to install fans in 392 schools as an immediate response to high temperatures. Many of Catalonia’s public buildings are aging, 26.5% were built before 1960 and 70% before 2007, so the plan also aims to modernize building structures to improve cooling.
To achieve this goal, the Catalan government is asking local councils and regional authorities to help with the project, and is offering to reimburse their investments by 2037. The Institut Català de Finances will also offer subsidized loans to municipalities that need funding.
Beyond schools, the government will also invest 58 million euros to improve the climate control in 51 public residences and provide financial support to private and non-profit residences that require upgrades, with a goal of completing these projects by 2031.
