Among the main novelties, absolute priority to renewable energies, goodbye to diesel cars and gasoline in 2040 or mobilization of 20% of the PGE to the fight against climate change.
From the same motion of censure to Rajoy in June, Pedro Sanchez had been saying that the Climate Change Law was one of his main priorities for the legislature. Today we have finally met some of the guidelines of future regulation, which envisages very profound changes and will be absolutely transversal, both vertical (will reach CCAA and municipalities) and horizontally, affecting many sectors so far regulated by other ministries, such as construction, transportation or energy.
“This document is now available to all economic and social agents,” explain sources of the Ministry of Transition Ecology that has spread this morning among journalists. Now it will be open to comments “before the document reaches the table of the Council of Ministers”.
For their elaboration, these same sources recognize that in the last months there have been sectoral meetings, for example with the automobile sector, to know their vision of the matter or their concerns. “Science will be guiding and informing all these decisions, both political and economic,” they add.
Some communities and Europe had already articulated specific regulations against climate change, but Spain lacked national legislation. The future law, as they have specified, will have “more ambition and greater urgency” than the European directive. For example, it proposes a target of 20% reduction in greenhouse emissions, 35% penetration of renewable energies (compared to 32.5% agreed a few weeks ago in Brussels) and 35% energy efficiency for the year 2030.
Currently, emissions in Spain are 17% higher than those in 1990, which will mean a real reduction of 37%. The basic objective is that in 2050 a complete decarbonization of the economy has taken place in our country and all the electricity produced is renewable. We have 32 years left.
These are some of the guidelines of the future law.
Legislative instruments
The future Climate Change Law will be accompanied by two other packages of measures: the National Energy and Climate Plan that they expect to submit before next December 31 and the 2050 Low Emissions Strategy. These regulations will contain the fine print that, according to the Government , will allow to achieve the climatic objectives contained in the Law. Among other things, they will define the energy mix for the coming years.
“The regulatory framework is very advanced,” they say from MITECO, “it is intended to facilitate the Energy Transition and decarbonization of the economy in 2050.”
Among the novelties, it is considered that the National Plan includes a five-year carbon budget “of an indicative nature”.
Renewable energies and networks
Under the new Law, it is planned to install in Spain “3,000 MW of power per year in installations for the production of electrical energy from sources of renewable origin”. Competitive competition procedures would begin in 2020 and last for a decade.
The objective is clear, favor the installation and consumption of clean energies: establishing the principles of their remuneration regime, recognizing the primacy in the installation of this type of plants over the others, and prioritizing their access and connection to transport and distribution networks Of electricity.
As a novelty, the Government also plans to approve a Statute for Electrointensive Consumers, such as factories, “that recognizes the particularities of those industrial electrical consumers with a high use of electricity”.
Goodbye to fossil fuels
As of the entry into force of the Climate Change Law, new authorizations will not be granted to explore, investigate or exploit an oil or gas field within the national territory (including the sea).
Any subsidy or investment that favors the consumption of fossil fuels will also be curbed and, as has already been announced in the case of diesel, a report will be made on the tax regime currently applied to these hydrocarbons in order to indicate “those measures and aid that favor their consumption “.The Executive will focus on the task of promoting biomethane and other synthetic fuels, of course, from renewable sources, also in air transport.
Mobility and constructionOne of the main bets of the Law will be that in 2050 there will not be a single gasoline or diesel car left in Spain. This is what they plan to do:
“As of 2040, the registration and sale in Spain of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles with direct emissions of carbon dioxide will not be allowed.”
“Municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must have low emission zones no later than 2023.”
Finally there is the issue of recharging points, a task that the Government wants to undertake together with fuel suppliers: it will establish, for example, the obligation to install electric recharging points in all gas stations with a high volume of sales.
Other countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway have already put expiration dates on the sale of diesel and gasoline cars.
Another major drawback to achieving climate goals is the efficiency of buildings. The Government’s plan includes, in addition to renovating the inefficient public buildings, “the rehabilitation with criteria of energy efficiency of 100,000 homes a year on average between 2021 and 2030.”
Who is going to pay for all this?
According to MITECO, from now on, fiscal policy will incorporate resources that configure the tax system to promote a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy. “At least 20% of the General State Budgets should have a positive impact on the fight against climate change,” the draft says. An objective that will be revised upwards before 2025. This figure, according to the latest PGE, would amount to an expense for the State of 30,887 million, all without counting the CCAA, local corporations or Social Security.
In addition, “we must mobilize more than 100,000 million private financing,” they add from the ministry.
To review all these details -as well as to impose autonomous communities to approve their own energy plans and cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, local energy and climate plans before the end of 2021- a Committee on Climate Change and Energy Transition will be created. that it will advise the government of the day and will prepare annual reports on who meets the objectives and who does not.