• The United Nations specifies that the more than 3 million cooperatives in the world employ 280 million people (10% of the world's active population).
• The President of CEPES recalls the contribution of cooperatives to “a future based on sustainable development and economic and social progress with a clear commitment to digitization and collective entrepreneurship and based on cooperation, democracy, solidarity, respect for diversity, innovation and the active participation of all citizens ”.
Madrid, July 3, 2020 .- The Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy ( CEPES ) highlights, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Cooperatives tomorrow, the actions in favor of sustainability and the fight against climate change carried out by these companies.
CEPES President, Juan Antonio Pedreño , pointed out that “the future must be oriented to find solutions to the challenges of our society, such as climate change, exclusion or ending inequalities. In addition, a future based on sustainable development and economic and social progress is necessary with a clear commitment to digitization and collective entrepreneurship and based on cooperation, democracy, solidarity, respect for diversity, innovation and the active participation of all citizens ".
Pedreño highlighted that “the Social Economy and cooperativism offers answers to those challenges of the future and proposes a different growth model, which, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, is environmentally sustainable, with a commitment to digitization, for an economy focused on industrial resilience with companies that do not relocate, for promoting the care economy and for strengthening the structure of the territories, promoting a just ecological and digital transition ”.
The Social Economy is one of the main engines of the ecological transition in Europe and CEPES asks to extend it also in Spain. “The more than 1,500 renewable energy cooperatives in Europe, which group more than one million people, are a good example. An unstoppable trend that responds to the demand of citizens for cleaner energy and at the service of the interests of local communities, "said Pedreño.
The President of CEPES recalled that "companies and entities of the Social Economy also play a key role in the construction and renovation of affordable housing for all, in sustainable agriculture that is committed to circularity and to rediscover the value of elements hitherto considered as agricultural waste, or of course in food distribution and short circuits ”.
"It has been the European Commission that in its latest communications and in its Action Plan for the Circular Economy has highlighted how the Social Economy is providing solutions for the Sustainable Transition in the production and distribution of renewable energy, sustainable housing, the agri-food sector and in urban mobility. In short, once again it is clear that the Social Economy is a melting pot of innovation, a citizen laboratory from which we actively contribute to designing a fairer and more sustainable future, ”said Pedreño.
COOPERATIVISM IN THE WORLD
The United Nations specifies that cooperatives employ 280 million people worldwide (10% of the global workforce). In addition, more than 12% of the world populationial is a cooperative member of one of the 3 million cooperatives on the planet. Likewise, the 300 largest cooperatives and mutuals generate a turnover of almost 2,035 billion dollars.
INTERNATIONAL DAY
The International Day of Cooperatives is an annual celebration of the cooperative movement that is celebrated every first Saturday in July since 1923. Starting in 1995, the United Nations and the International Cooperative Alliance established the theme of this celebration through the Committee for the Promotion and the Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), an association of multiple public and private institutions that defend and support self-sufficient and people-centered cooperative companies as leaders in sustainable development. The International Cooperative Alliance is one of its founding members.
The objective of this celebration is to raise awareness of cooperatives. The event highlights their contributions to solving the main problems addressed by the United Nations and to strengthening and expanding alliances between the international cooperative movement and other actors.
