Spain supports the new growth strategy for the EU based on climate action, the promotion of renewable energies and the circular economy and the conservation of biodiversity

EU Environment Ministers agree that the European Green Deal should be the guiding principle of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis

-The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, has pointed out that this sustainable recovery “requires coherence of public policies and regulatory frameworks that promote clean investments”

-Spain already has a roadmap for reconstruction, which includes the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan, the Climate Change and Energy Transition bill, the circular economy regulatory package and the royal decree approved to help the deployment of renewable energies.

June 23, 2020- The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, participated today by videoconference in the informal Council of Environment Ministers of the European Union focused on how environmental and climate policies can contribute to the recovery and the new growth strategy for the EU. The discussion, proposed by the outgoing presidency of the Council, Croatia, has stressed that the European Green Deal should be the guiding principle of this recovery, promoted in this first half of the year with the implementation of three initiatives: the European Climate Law, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Biodiversity Strategy to 2030.

In this sense, Morán has pointed out that this sustainable recovery “requires coherence of public policies and regulatory frameworks that promote clean investments in the economic effort that lies ahead.”

To this end, Spain already has a correct map: it has transferred the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) to Brussels; has submitted to the Courts the first draft law on Climate Change and Energy Transition; has approved the draft law on Circular Economy and the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy, and has presented the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change.

And today the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has given the green light to the Royal Decree approving measures in the field of energy and in other areas for economic reactivation. This royal decree will help the deployment of renewable energies, an axis highlighted in the European reconstruction agenda, seeking a stable and coherent regulation throughout the territory, which lowers the bill of the
light and that generates economic competitiveness. Likewise, Spain is developing a roadmap for renewable hydrogen in compliance with the PNIEC, as this is one of the technologies with the most potential in the next decade.

TRACTOR EFFECT ON EMPLOYMENT

The context of reconstruction requires identifying the lines with the greatest driving effect on employment and the economy and enhancing them: with public investment and activating the regulatory levers that stimulate private investment. In addition to the promotion of renewables, in Spain it is proposed to prioritize sustainable mobility, which will strengthen the existing value chain (capital goods, charging infrastructure and components and electric vehicles), improve air quality and generate more livable cities, and energy rehabilitation, in particular for housing, a sector especially intensive in employment and that generates positive synergies: with the fight against energy poverty and with digitalization in the management of buildings.

Spain also values very positively the recently approved EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and agrees that it should be a central element of the recovery plan to the pandemic, which has highlighted the links between human and ecosystem health and the growing risk of the spread of infectious diseases.

Morán has conveyed that our country, the one with the greatest biodiversity on the continent, wants to assume a leading role in supporting the implementation of the European Strategy, with actions to protect biodiversity and restore European ecosystems, keys to prevent future risks and also boost the resilience of the economy and society, especially in rural areas where we will promote synergies between the protection of the environment and the demographic challenge.

SPANISH BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY

In this sense, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is already working on a Spanish strategy for the conservation and recovery of biodiversity until 2030, which will be consistent with the European one and will allow its application in the Spanish field, and will shortly approve the Green Infrastructure Strategy and Ecological Connectivity and Restoration.

From the circular economy, the Second European Circular Economy Plan constitutes a basic reference for the green recovery of the EU, but it is necessary to support it with sufficient ambition to promote new European industries, such as production, services or waste management. For example, by reformulating value chains or revising the regulations on shipments of waste or green public procurement.

Spain is already working with this objective and, therefore, has recently approved its Circular Economy Strategy to 2030 and is making progress in the transposition of the European waste regulatory package through the Law on Waste and Contaminated Soils.

In short, Morán has insisted that “the final impact of this crisis will depend on the solidity of Europe’s economic and social recovery, on the recovery of our industries, value chains through their adaptation to the new challenges and demands in the European and global markets, on the creation of sustainable jobs for people in a modernized economy, that addresses the risks of climate change and biodiversity loss, and improves the health and well-being of citizens.”