“When we have had a complicated problem in the field of ecological transition, I have had to speak with former European commissioners of the Popular Party because there is currently no one who is an interlocutor on issues of sustainability and decarbonization.”
This is the criticism launched by the Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, during her speech at the conference “European Funds III: Spain, for global leadership in the green and digital economy”, organized this Monday by El Diario.es
Ribera has charged from the beginning of his intervention against the Popular Party, which he has accused of “not having a single proposal on energy transition.” “I have heard none of them, and the few that I have heard from Vox are worrying,” Ribera assured.
In this sense, he has made reference to proposals such as a return to coal, to nuclear power and even to promoting fraking (obtaining gas and oil from the subsoil through hydraulic fracturing techniques with a process that can represent dangers to human health and environment).
Asked if a PP government could pose a risk to decarbonization policies in Spain, Ribera recalled that when she took possession of the Ecological Transition portfolio, she found the “terrible effects” of the policy that the PP had applied in Spain regarding the development of renewable energies that generated a volume of 10,000 million euros in international arbitration disputes that the management of the current Government has reduced to 6,000 million.
Therefore, “nothing can be guaranteed, because it is not known what its policy is in this area. It cannot be guaranteed that there will not be a crazy change, as we have seen with proposals such as those of Garoña”, he pointed out, referring to Vox’s proposal to reopen the Garoña nuclear power plant as a temporary solution, for current energy needs.
On the other hand, Ribera has confirmed that the new National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) is going to incorporate an increase in decarbonisation objectives as required by the European Union and that requires intensifying the change in the country’s energy mix with a greater weight for renewable energy. Along these lines, the minister was optimistic because she considers that citizens are already sensitized, as shown by the fact that self-consumption has increased by “1,200%” in the last five years, Ribera assured.
The minister’s intervention ended by asking all political parties to provide a “calm environment for debate and concrete proposals” to advance in the transition both at the European and national levels. “The only thing that denial and retardation in the application of measures to fight climate change generate are messages that cause indecision in companies that have to make investments in this line. Faced with the problem of climate change, what we have to do is send messages of optimism and take advantage of the challenge facing the Spanish economy as a future energy hubâ€.
