The city of Zaragoza was chosen this Thursday night as the European Green Capital 2028. The prize was awarded by an international jury and the prize is awarded every year by the European Commission.
The winning city must stand out for its environmental policies, its commitment to sustainability and its ability to move towards a healthier, more resilient and environmentally friendly urban model.
Zaragoza's candidacy has prevailed in the final phase of the contest over the cities of Aalborg (Denmark), Bielsko-Biała (Poland), Košice (Slovakia) and Porto (Portugal).
The Aragonese capital passed a first technical evaluation carried out by an independent panel of experts and the final presentation before the jury held this Wednesday, October 7 in Guimarães, Portugal.
"Zaragoza, in the European elite"
The mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca, highlights that this recognition "places Zaragoza among the European elite of cities committed to sustainability."
The first mayor adds that this award represents recognition of the work carried out in recent years to make the city a greener, healthier, more accessible space and prepared to face the challenges of climate change.
"This award belongs to all of Zaragoza. It is the result of the work of institutions, companies, the university, social entities and, above all, of citizens who have shown that they want a better and more sustainable city," highlighted the Zaragoza councilor.
Zaragoza had already tried to compete for the award in 2009, 2011 and 2014. This time, it was the first time it managed to place itself among the five finalist cities and, finally, win the European title.
Zaragoza is also the only Spanish city that had reached the final phase of the award in this edition.
According to the Zaragoza City Council, being the European Green Capital will allow the city to develop during 2028 a broad program of actions and activities in cooperation with citizens and the different agents of the city.
The European Commission accompanies the recognition with a financial prize worth 600,000 euros and aimed at implementing the city's strategy.
This award is added to those recently achieved by Zaragoza: European City of Sports 2027 and Accessible City 2026 from the European Commission. The Aragonese capital is also part of the first 100 climate-neutral cities in the European Union by 2030.
"Zaragoza is not starting its green transformation today: it has been working on it for years. But this recognition gives us an extraordinary responsibility and opportunity to continue moving forward, share what we do with Europe and also learn from other cities," says the mayor, Natalia Chueca.
Chueca emphasizes that the most important thing will be "to continue improving the notoriety and positioning of the city internationally. We have presented a battery of 150 actions to carry out, from small projects to larger initiatives, such as Vive Latino or Ebro Vivo, to remember the 20 years of the 2008 International Exhibition."
The Zaragoza mayor has highlighted the necessary involvement of all citizens "in this exciting project, also adding small daily actions that will reach all residents, from schools to the elderly."
According to the Zaragoza City Council, the European Commission has given special value to "actions born from public-private alliances with a great impact on the population and with the capacity to bring the European Union closer to the rest of the world."
According to the Maño council, "an example of this is the Vive Latino Festival, which fully responds to this approach: it is a public-private collaboration with a wide-ranging citizen reach and, as one of the great Latin music festivals in Europe, it also acts as a cultural bridge between Europe and Latin America. For this reason it has been chosen as one of the action proposals of the candidacy."
The objective set with the achievement of the Green Capital is that the purchase of each subscription or ticket to the Vive Latino Festival will include the planting of a tree for the city, thus reaffirming the environmental commitment of both the city and the festival itself and its promoters.
The data that has made Zaragoza win
Among the data for which Zaragoza has won, the air quality stands out. Thus, the city registers a weighted average exposure to PM2.5 of 9.79 µg/m³, located among the 20% of the lowest values in Europe, while in 2025 all pollutants remained below the limit values of the European Union.
In terms of water, domestic consumption stood at 100.4 liters per inhabitant per day in 2024, while total consumption has decreased from 105 hm³ annually in the 1980s to 61 hm³ today. 99% of the population is connected to the sanitation network and 99.5% of wastewater receives tertiary treatment.
In addition, 27% of the municipal area is protected, with 12 Natura 2000 Network spaces totaling 35,978 hectares, and 76.5% of the population lives less than 300 meters from a public green area of more than 5,000 square meters. The Zaragozanos Forest contemplates the planting of 700,000 trees.
The Commission also highlights the evolution of waste management, with a 15.93% reduction in total generation between 2018 and 2025, to 287,063 tons, and separate collection that reaches the entire population. The candidacy also includes projects such as the CIRCULAR BIOCARBON biorefinery and REDOL, identified by the panel as examples of the progress achieved in the circular economy.
