The Climate Change and Energy Transition Bill passes its first parliamentary review, as the return amendment is rejected

The Plenary of the Congress of Deputies has rejected this Tuesday, July 14, with 53 votes in favor, 294 against and 0 abstentions, the amendment to the return presented by the Vox Parliamentary Group in Congress to the Draft Law on climate change and energy transition. The legislative initiative of the Government will thus continue its parliamentary processing in Committee, with the debate and vote on the amendments to the articles.

This standard has as main objectives that Spain reaches emission neutrality by 2050 at the latest, that is, that the country only emits the amount of greenhouse gases that its sinks are able to absorb, and that the Spanish electricity system is that same year 100% renewable. To this end, it establishes a roadmap and intermediate steps, establishing, for example, that by 2030, emissions must have been reduced by at least 20% compared to 1990 and that at least 35% of the final consumption of energy must be of renewable origin.

To achieve these proposed objectives, two climate and energy governance tools set out in Regulation 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 will be implemented: the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) and the 2050 Decarbonisation Strategy.

The Government argues that in response to the energy transition promoted by this law, there will be “the systematic improvement of the energy efficiency of the economy”. Specifically, the forecast is that the primary energy intensity of the Spanish economy will improve by 3.5% per year until 2030; Likewise, the country’s energy dependence, from 74% in 2017, is estimated to fall to 61% in 2030 as a result of the fall in coal and oil imports.

On the other hand, they assure that “the energy transition promoted by this law allows to mobilize more than 200,000 million euros of investment throughout the decade 2021-2030”, producing an annual increase of between 16,500 and 25,700 million euros per year of the Gross Domestic Product of Spain and increasing net employment between 250,000 and 350,000 people at the end of the period.

Amendment of totality

The Vox Parliamentary Group requested, through its amendment to the totality, the return of this bill to the Executive, arguing that the pursuit of its objectives “will require an exhaustive interventionism of the State in economic life and a brutal increase in public spending”, which, they say, can have “adverse effects on investment, consumption, employment and the competitiveness of the Spanish economy”, even more, they say, in the context of the recession that is looming after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, on the Government’s commitment to renewable energies, the opposing group defends that “if you want to promote, you must invest in research to increase its efficiency and solve the problem of intermittency and storage, but not impose them by decree.” They also state their position against the progressive closure of the nuclear sector because “it will aggravate the increase in the price of electricity and leave the country without a safe, stable and cheap source of energy.”

With the rejection of this amendment to the total return, the Draft Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition passes its first examination and continues with its parliamentary processing, which continues with the debate in Committee of the amendments to the articles.

Source: Congress of Deputies