Minister Ribera will send the Climate Law to Congress “in a few days” and bets on renewables for reconstruction

The fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, announced this Thursday in Congress that “in a few days, in a few weeks”, the deputies of the Lower House “will receive” the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition that the Government promised to send to Congress within 100 days on January 21, before the coronavirus health emergency.

During his speech to explain the actions carried out by his Department, within the scope of its competences, in relation to the pandemic, Ribera stressed “the opportunities for recovery” that the energy transition will offer after this health emergency, which “forces us to an effort of reconstruction and unity that I would describe as historic” and in which the Commission for the Reconstruction of the Congress must play a “very important” role.

Ribera, who despite the ramblings of the spokesmen of the PP and Vox has invoked the “consensus” for that reconstruction, has opted to promote renewable sources such as offshore wind, biogas, renewable heat and cold and hydrogen, “which will have to have a place much faster than we thought in our system.”

The minister has advanced that a total of 102,000 companies have been able to benefit until the end of April from the reduction of electricity power at no cost that the Government decided to facilitate in the framework of this crisis, while 14,199 self-employed have opted for the suspension of contracts having seen their income drastically reduced. The extension, for six months, of the social bonus to users who had to renew their application at the moment is protecting some 70,000 families every month; and the coverage of the electricity social bond has increased by 25,900 new households since the beginning of the state of alarm.

Ribera, who said that this crisis will force us to reflect on the reform of the electricity market that he has been announcing for years, recalled that this emergency has caused “a very notable change” in the consumption of oil, gas and electricity, which in the case of electricity has resulted in “important alterations of the price and cost structures of the system”.

He did not want to advance the estimate of the tariff deficit foreseen by the Executive that will be generated by the collapse in demand, which this Thursday Red Eléctrica has estimated at up to 20% during the hardest moments of confinement.

He has acknowledged that this gap will occur, which some estimates figure at 1,000 million for this year, noting that, although the collapse of wholesale electricity prices, “the result of the great presence of renewables” and the blow in demand, “may be a relief measure” for domestic consumers who have contracted the regulated tariff (PVPC), it has consequences on the sustainability of the electricity system.

“We will have to address how to respond safely, solvently, without generating disproportionate pressure on consumers via taxation, I think this would not be the recipe, but guaranteeing the viability of the system” and “credibility” with investors.

The vice president has also drawn attention to the “rebirth” that the consumption of plastics “associated with health precaution” is experiencing. “We will have to look for alternative materials” that guarantee a “correct balance between health safety and hygiene” and avoid the production of “enormously inefficient” plastic waste.

Source: El Diario