Madrid hosts the UN summit amid criticism for its climate inaction

Madrid will host between December 2 and 13 the 25th conference of the UN Climate Change Convention. The event has been very well received because it can give international projection to the Spanish capital. There is also agreement that Madrid is prepared and able to organize an event of this magnitude, which will bring together more than 20,000 people. However, the great paradox is that the current local government of Madrid has received numerous criticisms for its inaction on climate policy, the axis of the debates of this UN summit. This is not exactly the preferred flag of the PP.

Many of the cities that have hosted previous UN climate conferences have taken the opportunity to show the world their involvement in the fight against climate change. The clearest example was Copenhagen, which became a showcase for enduring development initiatives.

The mayor of Madrid, Martínez-Almeida, as soon as he arrived at the mayor’s office, tried to reverse Plan A.

Madrid has a powerful and rich social fabric that feeds the climate justice movement. But the Madrid City Council government, on the other hand, has not been characterized by its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Quite the opposite. His attempt to correct the low-emission zone of Madrid Central has earned him numerous criticisms and spurred the European Commission’s complaint against Spain before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for violating the air quality directive. The popular government in this community has been accused of lack of firmness in the commitment to public transport and of having a predilection for the road axes that promote the private car (tunnels, radials, large infrastructures …), instead of decarbonizing mobility.

The first announcement made by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, as soon as he arrived at the mayor’s office, was to try to reverse some measures of Plan A against Pollution and Climate Change launched by his predecessor, Manuela Carmena. This plan included a low emission zone (Madrid Central) where only residents and drivers of vehicles with a 0 emissions and ECO label can circulate freely. The new Consistory (PP and Cs) tried to circumvent this measure with a moratorium on fines to offenders, and it was the judges who categorically rejected this claim.

“We need local authorities to be exemplary not only in terms of the organization of this conference, but in that their policies give clear samples of what their commitment is regarding the fight against pollution and climate change,” says Inés Sabanés, the councilor of More Madrid in the area of Transport and Mobility, promoter of Central Madrid, today in the opposition.

The social entities have demanded that the government of Madrid “rectify its discourse and its practice”, described as “regressive” because, under the invocations of individual freedom, “the commitment to reduce traffic and cut emissions in transport is not assumed”, says Núria Blázquez, transport coordinator of Ecologists in Action. “To reduce pollution and mitigate warming we must reduce traffic in Madrid; but this is something that the PP has never accepted,” says Francisco Segura, spokesman for this entity.

The new local government showed its cards with the Madrid 360 Plan, to respond to the demand of the EC and improve air quality, but in this proposal the previous ambition is stopped. The new approach is not accompanied by the corresponding modelling (to know how and when the air quality values will approach the required levels) and the local mobility ordinance has not yet been modified. But the intentions of the PP are clear: 1) facilitate access to Madrid Central to vehicles with “C” badges; make public parking cheaper, and expand public parking spaces. “If people are allowed in and out, and you also lower the price of parking, you go in the opposite direction to what all the cities around us are doing,” says Sabanés.

Madrid is the third autonomous community with the least renewable energy installed (with 153 MW only surpassed by the Balearic Islands and Cantabria) and its electricity production is so low that it depends on that generated in other communities.

At the last summit of the C40 cities alliance against climate change, held in early October in Copenhagen, the Deputy Mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís (Ciudadanos), signed a commitment to create low-emission urban environments and cleaner air together with other cities. But this does not convince the opposition. “This double language generates uncertainty among citizens. The PP seems to have lowered the borderline tone to the climate denialism it employed. But he continues to practice contradictory discourse; is hostage to the demagogic campaign that they used both during the management of Carmena and during the electoral campaign, “says the mayor Sabanés, who points out other statements of high regional officials. A figure reviled by PP leaders has been Greta Thunberg, the young activist that the UN has used as a battering ram to demand greater ambition from countries in their climate action plans. “Few people have done more damage to the cause of climate change than Greta Thunberg’s parents,” said Cayetana Alvárez de Toledo, a popular spokeswoman. “Climate change has not been a priority for self-government. The president herself, Esperanza Aguirre, has used denialist arguments. If Madrid has been chosen as the venue, it has not been due to the merits of the City Council or the community,” says Francisco Segura.

Source: The Vanguard