Barcelona tackles climate change with tourist tax revenue but faces backlash from locals

In a recent report, CBS News features that Barcelona's efforts to address both the challenges of tourism and climate change were highlighted.

After widespread anti-tourism protests during the summer, Barcelona is seeking to turn the situation around by using part of the revenue from the city's tourist tax to address issues linked to climate change.

As one of Europe's top tourist destinations, many of Barcelona's 1.6 million residents feel that tourism is contributing to various problems, such as a housing crisis, rising costs, and the transformation of neighborhoods.

"The urban fabric is completely destroyed," said Fernando, a local resident, in an interview with CBS News. He lives in an area popular with tourists due to its restaurants and bars.

"This area particularly, you know, I've lived here for over 20 years and it's just, slowly getting, like, soulless. I would say 50 per cent of the buildings are here just for temporary use, you know, for rentals," he added.

"If it was like interesting cultural artistic and these kinds of clients, that would be much better for everybody," said Barcelona resident Elizabeth, who works at a hotel, in an interview with CBS News. "But people who come only for party, drink and just not taking care of the city. That is the problem." 

However, Barcelona, like many other southern European cities, is grappling with another pressing issue: the increasingly severe effects of climate change. In recent years, the city has experienced rising temperatures, more frequent heat waves, and droughts.

The higher temperatures are straining city infrastructure, particularly public schools, many of which lack air conditioning, as the extreme summer heat lingers into the school year.

At one public school in Barcelona, 11-year-old Mia told CBS News that the heat makes it difficult to concentrate in class. 

"It's very hard," she said. 

Her classmate Theo agreed, adding, "Sometimes when you're like, in the class, and you just came out playing football, it's very hot." 

But this year, for the first time, Mia and Theo have air conditioning in school, thanks to a system installed over the summer, funded by the city's tourist tax — a small fee levied on visitors.

"The tourist tax is what the tourists that visit our city pay when they are in a hotel or in a touristic apartment," Barcelona's Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet explained to CBS News. "The possibility of using these revenues, the tourism tax, for such a project is very important so that we can accept tourism in our city and the role that tourism has."

Barcelona's City Hall has launched a six-year program to install energy-efficient heat pumps and solar panels across the city's 170 public schools. The initiative aims to provide air conditioning while also reducing carbon emissions by replacing outdated gas-powered heating systems. The project, which is expected to cost around $100 million, is being fully funded through the city's tourist tax.

By Naila Huseynova