"It's not just stone. It's not just earth. It's a cry that awakens generations. It's the voice of a people rising up with dirty hands and a burning heart. It's a memory that doesn't kneel. It's pride that doesn't ask permission." These are phrases, almost verses, from Josep Maria Martí, a bricklayer from Alt Camp who a few days ago led a dry stone recovery workshop in Meüll, a small town in Castell de Mur (in Pallars Jussà). "It's more than stone, it's living memory," concludes Martí, who leads similar projects in other Catalan regions, such as Alt Urgell.

In Bovera, at the southern tip of Les Garrigues, there is a four-bedroom house with a bakery for rent for €250 per month. The offer was announced by the town council in 2020 to attract newcomers who wanted to bake bread for its 200 inhabitants. Last year, a family accepted the deal, but a few months later reconsidered and left for Barcelona. Now Bovera is again without a bakery, forcing people to travel to Granadella (seven kilometres away) to buy bread. The City Council's proposal still stands, but mayor Òscar Acero feels pessimistic. "Nobody wants to come and live in villages," he laments. Despite offering this business without local taxes, there are still no bidders.

One of the most worrying phenomena in western societies is inequality. In general and with all its derivatives, essentially economic, territorial and socio-cultural. Failure to ensure that almost the entire population is within a range of homologous welfare, especially low incomes, is a failure in itself and because of the negative consequences that it entails in the long run for the entire population, whatever their income. Historically, any large-scale conflict demonstrates this. Today, the pandemic and the quest for maximum effectiveness in vaccination are no less starkly in front of our eyes. Either we all move forward, at the pace required by the context of each group, or we will not get ahead. Or at least not efficiently.

The climate emergency is a reality recognized by the Generalitat and by the Parliament since 2019, long before the pandemic broke out, but the palpable response to this urgency is still awaited. The first task of the next Government - whether or not it has its own Department of the Environment, as demanded by environmental movements - will be to put into practice the goals already set by the law on climate change, a pioneering law passed four years ago that has been trapped in its deployment. The carbon budgets are pending, which will set the effort that each economic sector of the country will have to make to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG). The horizon is very ambitious: a Catalonia in which 50% of energy comes from renewable sources by 2030, and where zero emissions are achieved by 2050. The deployment of wind and photovoltaic energy must be accelerated, but it must be done with guarantees that the projects are compatible with other essential activities, such as agriculture, to guarantee food sovereignty or the protection of areas of great ecological value. Decarbonisation is a requirement that will determine, to a large extent, where the coveted European funds go, and it will be necessary to discern priorities well. However, beyond this, Catalonia also has to deploy its own taxes to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation policies. At the end of this year the tax on CO from vehicles is due to be introduced. The other two planned taxes, on the most polluting economic activities and on large ships, have not yet been deployed. The draft law on waste prevention, and the adaptation of European standards such as disposable plastic, is also pending. And, as temporary storms like the Filomena or the Gloria remind us, the plan for the protection and management of the coastline cannot be postponed any longer.

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