Isabel García Tejerina: “The OECD confirms the spectacular progress of Spain’s environmental performance”

The Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, stressed today that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has noted, in its latest report of 2015, “a spectacular progress in Spanish environmental performance, which has improved in practically all its indicators”.
Isabel García Tejerina made these statements during the presentation, together with the Secretary General of the OECD, Ángel Gurría, at the headquarters of the Ministry, of the “3rd Report of this organization on the environmental performance of Spain”.
In his speech, García Tejerina underlined how the OECD report points to Spain as “a world benchmark in terms of biodiversity, which has been able to reconcile the protection of its natural heritage with a dynamic economy that generates employment”.
He also specified that the document includes the conclusions reached by the OECD’s Environmental Review team after almost 18 months of intense study. In this period, this body has analysed reports and statistics from the last 10 years, has interviewed experts, and has compared the conclusions with the data and regulations of other countries in our environment.
García Tejerina also said that the aforementioned report confirms the importance of the legislative reforms adopted by Spain, as they reduce administrative burdens and improve legal certainty to achieve better protection of the environment. In this sense, the minister cited the Environmental Assessment Law or the Law on the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Coast.
In addition, García Tejerina commented that the document refers to the various programmes launched to improve the environment and the fight against climate change, as well as the progress made in hydrological planning achieved by Spain and the investments in supply and sanitation.
BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION
In this regard, the minister referred specifically to the legislative measures adopted for the protection of biodiversity, the effort made by the private sector, as well as the greater awareness of our society, and which “have made it possible for our environmental performance to improve in practically all its indicators”.
The minister explained that, according to the report, the intensity of the use of coal and energy has been reduced. The generation of waste and the emission of atmospheric pollutants have also decreased significantly.
The aforementioned text also highlights the “responsible and exemplary behaviour of our industry, a leader in Europe in the adoption of environmental management systems”, as indicated by the minister.