García Tejerina: “Civil society as a whole has a very important role to play in the fight against climate change”

The Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, pointed out that “civil society as a whole has a very important role to play in the fight against climate change and, especially, the business sector”.
According to García Tejerina, “the decisions taken by companies in the fight against climate change are and will be decisive in achieving sustainable and low-carbon economic growth, which provides prosperity and jobs to our societies”.  
García Tejerína made these statements at the closing of the I Forum of the Spanish Group for Green Growth GGG Spain (Green Growth Group), held at the headquarters of the Ministry, “whose contributions will contribute to strengthening the negotiating position of Spain and the European Union in the next international events, especially at the Climate Conference, which begins next week in Lima.”
In the minister’s opinion, “we are at a crucial and interesting moment in the fight against climate change”, as attested by the scientific reports of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which urge the international community to act immediately if we intend to stop and reverse this process and its effects. 
Faced with this situation, the minister highlighted “the broad political commitment of so many Heads of State and Government, with such a clear and common message: the need to act and do it now”.
COP 20, IN LIMA 
In this way, he added, “the Lima Summit will be a key milestone to achieve in 2015 that new climate agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, and which we want to be legally binding for all countries”.
As detailed by the minister, in Lima must be defined, among other issues, the main elements that will make up the new Paris agreement, the information that the countries must present together with their contributions and that they must incorporate into the global agreement, and advance in the analysis of options that allow increasing ambition for 2020. 
In this context, García Tejerina stressed that “Spain faces these negotiations with the satisfaction of actively participating in the commitment to the fight against climate change together with our partners in the European Union”.
According to the minister, the EU arrives in Lima “with its homework done, since last October we approved the Energy and Climate Framework 2030 by which, unilaterally, we committed to reducing our emissions by 40%; to reach 27% use of renewable energies and increase our energy efficiency by 27%, by 2030”. 
However, García Tejerina hopes that, at the Lima Summit, the largest number of countries will formulate their commitments to reduce emissions. In this regard, “the recent agreement reached by the United States and China to reduce their emissions opens up a new and interesting scenario,” he said.
In any case, the minister understands that this new agreement on climate change should not focus only on mitigation but should address the necessary adaptation policies in the face of climate change, as well as the need for support for developing countries, “so that they can elaborate and develop their climate change strategies”. 
GREEN GROWTH     
On the other hand, Isabel García Tejerina stressed that the Government has worked throughout this Legislature to improve the economic and employment conditions of the country. For the minister, “it is within this primary objective that our initiatives in the fight against climate change must be situated”.  
Among these initiatives, García Tejerina mentioned the Climate Projects, the Environmental Promotion Plans (PIMA Aire, PIMA Sol, PIMA Empresa), the Roadmap of Diffuse Sectors, or the Carbon Footprint Registry.
In short, “this government has made an active and effective climate change policy”. To this end, “we have mobilised the resources of the Carbon Fund, making it a key part of our policy, and we have oriented climate change policy to reduce our emissions”. In the minister’s opinion, “the investments we make to achieve this objective translate into quality activity and jobs”.  
Finally, García Tejerina considers that the Spanish Group for Green Growth is “the right forum for Spanish companies and the Administration to share information and work on the common goal of achieving a low-carbon economy”.