The Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, today celebrated the approval of Spain’s first Climate Change and Energy Transition Law in the Congress of Deputies. The text, which comes at a key moment to activate the levers of economic recovery, establishes the objectives to achieve the full decarbonisation of the economy before 2050.
For the vice president, the law approved today by the Lower House is an “essential” document that had been postponed for too long. “We mark a milestone, a starting point from which to always look ahead and go further, never less. This law addresses complex challenges at a difficult time for our society.”
A RICH AND REINFORCED TEXT
Ribera has emphasized the intense work that all the parliamentary groups have been doing and that shows the degree of involvement and interest that the law has aroused. After having passed through the Congress and the Senate, the amendments made have enriched and strengthened the text. The Climate Change and Energy Transition law contemplates a first upward revision of its objectives in 2023. In this sense, Ribera called on the groups to “support the climate ambition pursued by the Government and to continue working on the sum of consensus”.
The impacts of climate change are already evident in our country: the storm Gloria that hit the Spanish coast and the storm Filomena that last January immobilized a large part of the country, are just two phenomena that show the forcefulness of the effects of climate alteration. Extreme weather events of this type mean an average of almost 700 lives and 900 million euros a year for our country. For this reason, the vice-president insisted on the urgency of transforming our development model and our way of life, integrating sustainability and resilience criteria.
MODERNIZING THE ECONOMY
In the last two years, Spain has made more progress than ever in the assumption of climate commitments, international leadership and the development of public policies. However, Ribera pointed out that “more ambition is needed to shortcut the path towards full decarbonisation, replace fossil fuels with renewable energies, modernise the economy and transform production and consumption models, adapt to climate impacts and make these changes without forgetting any territory or any person”.
In this regard, the Vice-President stressed that this project is a first step to articulate the rest of the policies and measures, and thus guide the recovery process towards a model of lasting prosperity that respects the limits of the planet.
In her speech, Ribera said that this law is “by everyone and for everyone”, and wanted to address especially young people who are at the same time “accomplices and voice of conscience in terms of progress in the fight against climate change”. The vice-president recalled that in the fight against climate change “we need the audacity of young people to anticipate and take advantage of the world of opportunities opened up by the technologies of the future”.
COMMITMENT TO DECARBONIZATION
Spain’s commitment to decarbonisation is reflected in the emission reduction targets in diffuse sectors (mobility, thermal uses in buildings, waste or agriculture) which, with a reduction of 39%, is 13 points above the 26% target set by the European Union.
On the other hand, while the EU establishes a penetration of renewables between 38% and 40% in final energy consumption by 2030, the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan establishes 42% for Spain. In terms of energy efficiency, Europe considers an increase of between 36 and 37% by 2030 to be necessary, while the Spanish target is 39.5%.
