What will the declaration of climatic emergency in Spain entail?

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Spain is one of the most vulnerable European countries to climate change and since Tuesday, it is officially in a climate emergency situation. And not because the destructive storms Gloria is causing serious damage as it passes through Levante. The newly inaugurated Government of Pedro Sánchez has once again revealed that the fight against climate change will be one of the priorities of its legislature by approving in its second council of ministers the Declaration of Climate and Environmental Emergency of Spain . A statement that Teresa Ribera, vice president for the Ecological Transition, affirmed, " will allow us to go faster and respond to that social demand that is palpable."

As he explained after the press conference after the Council of Ministers with the spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero, through this agreement, the Government undertakes to adopt 30 priority lines of action - five of them will be implemented in the first one hundred days of Government-, to fight against climate change with transversal policies and take advantage of the social and economic benefits offered by the ecological transition.

Transversality is surely the key word because, as Teresa Ribera has pointed out, "it is a declaration of political commitment, of government, in all its fields" that will imply "practically all public policies", from research and innovation to the fiscal aspects.

The Climate Change Law, axis of the plan

Among the immediate measures, the remission to Parliament of the expected Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, which will be the regulatory axis that marks the rest of the actions, stands out. Thus, one of the priorities will be to define the road map for decarbonization with the objective that our country reaches climate neutrality by 2050 (that is, to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and compensate for emissions that cannot be avoided ).

How does the Executive intend to achieve climate neutrality or zero net emissions in 2050? According to the approved text, "a 100% renewable electrical system, a passenger car park and commercial vehicles with emissions of 0 grams of CO2 per kilometer , a neutral agricultural system in equivalent CO2 emissions, and a fiscal, budgetary and financial compatible with the necessary decarbonization of the economy and society ".

Diesel vehicles

Asked Teresa Ribera about the future of diesel vehicles and if they would be banned, the fourth vice president has said that Spain will keep the European Union guidelines "at the right end", which states that they must emit zero grams of CO2 per kilometer from 2050. Although he recalled that some states have asked to postpone the implementation of this measure, Spain does not wish to be separated from this plan.

The agreement approved today underlines that "the Mediterranean region is considered one of the global" hot spots "in terms of climate change and recalls that the first steps have already been taken, as with the approval of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021- 2030 (PNIEC) To achieve that the electricity generation is 100% renewable in 2050, by 2030 the emissions of greenhouse gases will have to be reduced by one third and the electricity system will have to have a 42% renewable on the final use of energy and 74% in electricity generation.

Another measure will be the implementation of a Citizen Assembly of Climate Change that will include the participation of young people.

According to Montero, the objective of this declaration is to achieve "a project for a common, fairer and more equitable future" that takes advantage of the opportunities for ecological transition through transverse public policies that place the citizen at the center.

The agreement amounts to more than 200,000 million euros the amount of money to be mobilized for the necessary investments in the 2020-2030 decade.

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