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«Fight against climate change: fair ecological transition, protection of our biodiversity and guarantee of dignified treatment of animals».
It is not the missing paragraph of an environmental study. It is not the end of the manifesto of an environmental protest. It is not the last point of a government agreement. Is the third.
These quotes belong to the pact signed on November 12 between Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias to govern Spain (or try). And if only a few years ago it was unthinkable that such a statement even included the word climate, this irruption, which reaches the podium, means something: the planet is political .
The parties have gradually added to the fight against climate change. Today, the PP would have a hard time defending what José María Aznar said in 2008 in the presentation of the book Blue Planet (Not Green) : «Climate change is a scientifically questionable theory. The defenders of the climate apocalypse are enemies of freedom who defend a new religion that condemns those who dare question their thesis. I do not know if there is a climate change in which the action of man is or is not decisive. It's a problem that maybe, or maybe not, our great-great-grandchildren will have ».
Traditionally, the left has better connected with environmental combat, although it barely stayed in the slogans of the 80s - «Nuclear? No, thanks »- while their governments continued to open nuclear reactors or paralyzed others in exchange for forgiving the debt to the electricity companies that built them. Opposite, the right obviated green activism or directly rejected it.
But scientific evidence, the involvement of institutions such as the UN or the EU, or global consensus such as the Paris Agreement (2015) have embedded an indisputable fact on the political agenda: global warming as an effect of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere .
However, in a world of trenches, climate change was not going to be the exception and has become politicized.
In Spain, the most recent and capitalized example is Central Madrid, the restriction of traffic in the city center. The idea and the first limitations were born in the popular governments of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Ana Botella, but the significant expansion of the prohibited area was executed by Manuela Carmena. And Central Madrid was the war .
The right opposed by arguing that it would not reduce pollution throughout the city and injure local residents and merchants.
The left joined by ensuring that the air would improve and that benefits everyone, and that the commercial grows when the pedestrian grows.
In the municipal elections, the PSOE, Podemos and Más Madrid defended Central Madrid, the PP and Vox promised their immediate abolition, and Citizens their reformulation. The pacts of the three rights made mayor the popular José Luis Martínez Almeida, who announced a moratorium on fines while changes were planned. But days later, a judge suspended her. And so, today, Central Madrid is still in force. And with fines.
If environmental health is political health, there is no party that dares to forget the issue in their promises, rallies or tweets.
Electoral offer
Note the offer in the latest electoral programs and the headlines of their leaders.
PSOE: Law on Climate Change and Ecological Transition so that in 2030 74% of electricity is renewable. Sustainable Housing Plan promoting rehabilitation. Low Emission Areas in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. Pedro Sánchez: « We are facing a weather emergency , we run out of time».
PP: Reduction of emissions considering economic and industrial circumstances. Elimination of generation taxes and aid for electric cars. Agricultural Sustainability Pablo Casado: « Climate change is not fought in New York , but in the field with reservoirs and dikes».
Vox: National Hydrological Plan, Energy Plan and soil liberalization. Not concrete, but it speaks of "ecolocura" and marks the anthropic origin of global warming of "unjustified exaggeration." Santiago Abascal: « Climate change is the new religion . It is a trap of cultural Marxism that detracts us from freedoms ».
United We Can: Public Energy Company, which includes prohibiting the commercialization of water and abandoning the reservoir policy. Lowering the electricity bill and taxes on hybrid and electric cars. Discounts for using public transport. Declaration of the State of Climate Emergency in Spain. Pablo Iglesias: «The climate problem is a problem of the economic system. It is already among us and we don't have a spare planet ».
Citizens: Law of Ecological Transition not to depend on fossil fuels. Year 2050 as limit for zero emissions. And planting 10 trees per person. Inés Arrimadas: «We are in discount time. Ten trees for each Spanish is a reforestation that will help reduce CO2 emissions ».
Greenpeace did an exam with 15 boxes and put notes: PSOE and Podemos were the least suspenseful, PP and Vox had the most, and Cs "the most opaque." " In all programs there is a lack of ambition in the face of climate urgency," they said.
The Climate Summit has started on Monday and the world will turn its oxygen towards Madrid. Also towards the young environmental conscience remover Greta Thunberg, although there are those who criticize her activism. Aznar: "That girl should be in school."
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