The Third Vice President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge,

Teresa Ribera

opened the door to a possible update of the electricity market after Spain and Portugal received the go-ahead to implement an Iberian exception for one year that reduces the impact of the price of gas in electricity generation.

In statements during his speech at the III Expansion International Forum, Ribera pointed out that the measure "opens a debate regarding the regulation of the electricity market", which, although it has worked so far, he considers that it is "probably in need of modernization, a update" like the one approved yesterday.

As explained by the third vice-president, the Iberian exception "will largely prevent the spread of gas prices to electricity market prices as a whole".

The European Commission approved the mechanism on Wednesday, after more than two months of negotiations.

In this way, both Spain and Portugal, which depend less on gas to generate electricity, will be able to put a cap on the price of this fuel when it is used for this purpose.

Thus, they hope that the electricity bill will be reduced practically immediately, once it starts up.

Previously, the minister had assured during an interview on Onda Cero that this cap on the price of gas will help reduce inflation "around eight tenths or one point" in the coming months.

Teresa Ribera opened a conference that later continued with a session on Energy transition and impacts on society.

Norman Foster (president of the Norman Foster Foundation), José Bogas (CEO of Endesa), Ignacio Colmenares (president of ENCE), Federico Linares (president of EY Spain), Erik Solheim (president of the Green Belt and Road Institute and former minister of Environment of Norway) and Maarten Wetselaar (CEO of Cepsa).

"We know that we must change the paradigm," warned Ribera, who also explained that the change must be "accelerated."

In his opinion, we must respond to the climate crisis, biodiversity and production and consumption models.

Water, energy and land, she stressed, are the keys "to pay attention to from a regulatory point of view."

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