The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, today presented the initiatives selected in the 2017 call for Climate Projects and announced the new call for proposals for this year, with the aim of achieving initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in diffuse sectors (transport, residential, fluorinated gases, small industry, waste or agriculture) through public-private collaboration. García Tejerina highlighted the value of this initiative, which the Ministry is committed to and which has become “a useful tool in the fight against climate change which, after six years of operation, has been consolidated as a successful initiative”, said the minister.
The 2018 call will be the seventh. The Minister emphasized that “all projects that contribute to Spain’s progress towards a green, circular and low-carbon economy will have the support of this Ministry”.
The Climate Projects aim to support and promote low-carbon activities, which allows the FES-CO2 Carbon Fund to acquire the verified emission reductions generated by the selected projects and that must contribute to achieving the objectives assigned to Spain for the period 2013-2020. In the 2017 call, 62 projects have been selected out of the 111 submitted, which will reduce a total of three million tonnes of CO2 and formalise the acquisition of verified emission reductions, exceeding 36 million euros this year. These Climate Projects are aimed at reducing emissions in diffuse sectors such as transport, residential, waste, agriculture and livestock, fluorinated gases or industry not subject to the emissions trading system (ETS).
From April 10, the project submission phase for the 2018 call opens, whose deadline for submitting applications will end on May 14. García Tejerina emphasized the Ministry’s interest in maintaining the success of the last calls, encouraging everyone to “continue participating, innovating and proposing new ideas to continue reducing greenhouse gas emissions and help achieve our goals as a country and as a society”.
After the first six years,the Climate Projects are proving to be examples of generating economic activity in our country, favouring the creation of employment in sectors associated with the fight against climate change. In total, nearly 900 proposals have been submitted, more than 300 emission reduction projects selected, 115 million euros in contracts signed, with the capacity to reduce emissions by more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Climate projects bring environmental, social and economic benefits, encourage Spanish companies to be more competitive, and strengthen their leadership in sectors and in the use of technologies. All this in a context of public-private collaboration and thanks to the participation of large and small companies, administrations and entities of all kinds.
At the Biodiversity Foundation we work on projects that aim to mitigate CO2 emissions and improve air quality or assess environmental impact, among other areas. You can learn by clicking here about the projects we coordinate and support to improve the quality of the environment and the mitigation of climate change.
