It was one of the government’s flagship initiatives, but eight months after the climate change law was referred to Congress, it continues to accumulate delays. No presentation has yet been held to officially negotiate on any of the 758 amendments to the text presented by the Ministry of Ecological Transition. The parliamentary working group has not been convened even after its processing was approved in December by the urgent procedure and the month of January was enabled for it, since theoretically it is a month without legislative activity.
Vice President Teresa Ribera hoped that the rule that will ban polluting cars would be approved before the end of 2020. Reality has been moving away from deadlines. The negotiation of the law is complex and republishing blocks such as the one that carried out the budgets (PSOE, Unidas Podemos, PNV, ERC, Bildu, PDeCAT, CompromísMás País-Equo, Compromís, Teruel Existe, Nueva Canarias, PRC) or the Celaá law (PSOE, Unidas Podemos, ERC, PNV, Más País-Equo, Compromís and Nueva Canarias) is not easy. The text aims to set the “neutrality” of CO2 emissions in 2050, with an intermediate objective to 2030, and for this it proposes changes in sectors as diverse as the automotive, the energy system, electricity or agriculture. The biggest differences, according to the volume of amendments, are grouped around the accounting of emissions, mobility, the rehabilitation of buildings or the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
Various parliamentary sources are surprised that PSOE and Unidas Podemos are delaying the processing of the rule so much, although the purple formation attributes the delay to the complexity of the text and the volume of amendments. It is expected that in the “coming days” the presentations will be convened, which would postpone the vote on the law to mid-March or April.
The talks prior to the presentations are “very advanced”, says the deputy of Podemos and president of the Commission for the Ecological Transition of the Congress, Juan López de Uralde, although he recognizes that they do not go at the same pace with all the parties. Some of the formations consulted by ABC point out that the first preparatory contacts have taken place just a few days ago. “Until today the PSOE has only raised its positions in relation to our amendments with respect to a first block of them, which covers up to Article 6,” says the PNV spokeswoman in the commission, Idoia Sagastizabal. The bill has 36 articles.
For now, all parties except Vox aspire to a certain consensus. “There is a general awareness that we must move forward with a climate change law,” says Diego Gago, deputy and spokesman for the PP in the commission, “but we see that the draft is very poor.” The group criticizes on the one hand that there are objectives that fall short, while for others there are very hasty deadlines. “This law must walk the path marked by Europe, it must do so decisively but without rushing and seeking the maximum possible consensus,” agrees Sagastizabal.
Friction points
Other parliamentary sources see it very difficult to reconcile the objectives of the greener political bloc with the rest, including parties that have supported the Government in other votes, as would be the case of the PNV or Bildu, two formations with an interest in allowing the exploitation of natural gas, contrary to what the bill says.
Nor does Ciudadanos agree with this point. “It is not positive to ban activities such as oil exploitation or nuclear energy,” says spokeswoman Mari Carmen Martínez. He says: “The fight against climate change cannot be a four-year strategy.”
Source: ABC
