Ten lights and five shadows of the Climate Change Law

The text of the Climate Change bill, whose preparation is about to be completed in the Congress of Deputies, maintains the forecast of dispensing with conventional internal combustion vehicles in 2040 (gasoline, diesel and non-plug-in hybrids). After the paper procedure (which has defined the bulk of the articles) the forecast is that the text will be approved in committee at the beginning of April and sent to the Senate. “The law is better now than when it entered Congress,” says Juantxo López de Uralde, president of the commission for the ecological transition of Congress that has piloted the entire negotiation. Two new guiding principles of the law have been introduced in recent times. 1) The economic development of areas hosting renewable energy production plants must be strengthened, and 2) to face the climate crisis, action must be taken taking into account “the best and most recent scientific evidence available including the latest reports of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)”

These are the keys to the document agreed by Unidas Podemos and PSOE with the support of ERC, Bildu, PNV and Teruel Existe.

The Lights

1) MOTOR VEHICLES. Despite the controversy that broke out in its day, internal combustion cars will no longer be introduced to the market in 2040. The text avoids imperative formulas, but marks this date as a clear indicative signal. Some environmental organizations had called for the “expiration date” to be brought forward to 2035 so that there would be no internal combustion cars circulating beyond 2050. “If combustion cars continue to be sold until 2040, since they can have 15 years of life, we will find that they will be circulating well beyond the year 2050,” complains Carlos Bravo, spokesman for Transport and Environment. It would be a contradiction, since climate neutrality (a zero emissions balance) should be achieved by this date.

2) REDUCE EMISSIONS. By 2030, the commitment is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 23% compared to 1990 (compared to the 20% cut initially planned). It has also been agreed that this target should be revised upwards in 2023. It has been the response to the demands of various environmental organizations (Greenpeace…) and Más País-Equo, the party of Íñigo Errejón, who had called for a much greater cut in emissions (-55%). However, the Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, maintains that the target of -23% is coherent and that it fits with the increase in ambition promised by the European Commission for the EU as a whole (-55% in 2030 compared to 1990 levels in the EU as a whole.)

Position of More Country-Equo

“It is possible to do much more”

Más País-Equo considers, however, that the 23% reduction in emissions by 2030, provided for in the law, “does not align with science.” It is a “conservative” reduction and corresponds to pre-pandemic estimates. We all know, including the Government, that it is possible and necessary today to do much more. We must take into account the sharp drop in emissions during the pandemic as well as the arrival of European funds that will accelerate the ecological transition,” says Florent Marcellesi, co-spokesperson of Verdes Equo. “We call on PSOE and UP to take a courageous leap into the present and to listen to science, youth and environmental NGOs. There is still time between now and the vote in Congress to update the 2030 targets. For this law not to be born obsolete and old, it is essential to increase its climate ambition.”

3) RENEWABLES AND SMALL PRODUCERS. After the United We Can-PSOE negotiation, the objectives are intensified. By 2030, clean energy should represent 42% of final energy consumption (and not the 35% initially planned), and contribute 74% of the electricity system (and not 70%). Primary energy consumption should be reduced by 39.5%.

The document does not mention the word “self-consumption” from renewable sources. The photovotaic sector (Unef) wanted the law to be used to transpose the renewable energy directive (to improve the aspects of legal certainty, administrative simplification and rights of self-consumers). He also unsuccessfully asked that 20% of the power that is raised be reserved for plants of less than 10MW to make room for small producers.

4) OIL-FREE COASTS. No new exploration authorizations, research permits and hydrocarbon exploitation concessions will be granted. This provision also affects coastal areas. It was one of the demands of the environmental organizations that demanded this veto in the Balearic or Canary Islands. “The application for the concession of authorization for the exploitation of hydrocarbons that has not been initiated prior to the date of entry into force of the concession will not proceed,” it is indicated exhaustively. Concessions for the exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits in force may not be extended beyond 31 December 2042.

5) HYDRAULIC FRACTURING, NOT FRACKING. Once the law is operational, no new authorizations will be granted in Spanish territory for hydrocarbon exploitation activities where the use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking”, is foreseen.

6) GOODBYE TO URANIUM MINING. As of the approval of the law, “no new applications will be accepted for the granting of exploration permits, research permits or direct exploitation concessions, nor their extensions” of mines or radioactive minerals. It is the “sentence” for the uranium mine promoted by a multinational in Retortillo (Salamanca).

7) LOW EMISSION ZONES. The text maintains the obligation to create low-emission zones in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants by 2023, in order to reduce air pollution and _CO2 emissions.

8) REHABILITATION OF HOUSING. The articles in this area are reinforced. Materials used in the rehabilitation of buildings should have the lowest possible carbon footprint in order to reduce total emissions. Once the law is passed, in six months, the Government must present a housing rehabilitation plan. Various proposals have also been introduced at the last moment to increase digitalization within the strategies for decarbonization.

9) ENERGY AND NATURAL SPACES. Another novelty. The deployment of renewable energies “must be carried out in a manner compatible with the conservation of the natural environment and adequate territorial planning”. To do this, part of the wealth generated must “revert” on the territory to “activate its economy and combat its demographic decline.” Terrestrial carbon sinks (forests) will also be protected, forest products from forests will be encouraged and the bioeconomy will be supported as an engine of development in the rural world, say some of the new articles incorporated.

10) THE DIET, ON STAGE. “We introduced diet in the fight against climate change,” says Juantxo López de Uralde, president of the Congressional Ecological Transition Commission. Public contracts may set special conditions that “prioritize fresh or seasonal food, and with a short distribution circuit”, to reduce gas emissions.

The shadows

1) ELECTRIC RECHARGE. The owners of the facilities for the supply of fuels and fuels for vehicles (electrolineras) must install at least one electric recharging infrastructure of power equal to or greater than 50 kW in direct current, within a period of time of between 21 and 27 months, from the entry into force of the law. Más País, Compromís, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and Teruel Hay have asked to replace in all its sections those 50 kW that it now establishes by 150kW. With 150 kW the recharge would be done three times faster than with 50 kW, saving considerable waiting time, which is an important element when traveling. Several NGOs (Transport and Environment, Ecodes, Fundación Renovables, IIDMA, SEO/BirdLife) consider that the article, in this area, has great shortcomings. They criticize that, with its current formulation, the pace of the deployment of charging infrastructures is put solely in the hands of existing service stations. They complain that the role of other entities that could also act as operators of fast charging infrastructure is not regulated. Through the Technical Building Code, the installation of recharging systems in new buildings and interventions in existing buildings will be articulated, in order to achieve cleaner transport in cities.

2) CARBON BUDGETS. The objectives on emission reductions may be revised upwards, but the proposal to set annual carbon budgets, the emissions allowed each year to mark the milestones that allow to guarantee a correct decarbonization path, has not been included. “We did not want to introduce this figure, which includes the legislation of Great Britain, France or Germany,” complains Carlos Bravos, spokesman for Transport and Environment.

3) TRUCKS. There are no measures to decarbonise the road transport sector (responsible, on its own, for 26.8% of total national greenhouse gas emissions). There are no specific emission reduction targets for trucks. The Government will commit to setting targets on biofuels and alternative fuels of renewable origin for transport, but there are no specific targets or specific mention for aviation (synthetic kerosene of renewable origin)

4) BUSINESS ACTION PLANS. It does not include an obligation for large Spanish public companies to draw up climate action plans with their commitments in this area. In this area, listed companies, credit institutions, insurers and reinsurers shall draw up an annual report on the exposure of their activity to the risks of climate change and the measures taken. Financial institutions will publish specific decarbonisation targets for their loan and investment portfolio aligned with the Paris Agreement from 2023.

5) CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLIES. NGOs miss citizens’ assemblies on climate change. Formed by about 100 or 150 people chosen by lot, they function as a popular jury that debates and adopts its own resolutions. On January 21, 2020, the Council of Ministers promised in its declaration of climate emergency that it would convene the citizen assemblies in a hundred days and that this was intended to “reinforce the existing participation mechanisms with a Citizen Assembly on Climate Change” but more than a year later “there has been no progress in this regard”, Extinction complains. “It is incomprehensible that our proposal has not been accepted, since in the general budgets of the state, a proposal of ours was approved in favor of the Citizen Climate Assembly. We must be coherent and now include citizen participation in the Law,” says Más País-Equo.

Source: The Vanguard