Faced with "this unprecedented emergency that must be resolved very quickly," Ribera has urged to be active, to "learn from the past" and to open a social and inclusive dialogue that allows for consensus building.
Within the framework of the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25), the acting minister has participated in the opening of the act on the results of the "Climate Action for Work" Initiative together with the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder.
This initiative, promoted by Spain and Peru on behalf of the United Nations, has so far achieved the commitment of 46 countries to implement fair transition plans through social dialogue, creating decent work and green jobs. Ribera has celebrated the degree of commitment reached and hopes that, soon, "many more countries will join."
The Minister for the Ecological Transition in functions has stressed that these plans translate into specific tools for climate action to ensure a just transition, specifying where are the opportunities for employment and what are the skills and competencies that workers need and the workers to be an active part of this change.
Place people in the center
He explained that, as soon as the Government was constituted, the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) had to act quickly to face social emergencies linked to closures of private mines and production units. "No one had thought of people who, for generations, have contributed to the development of Spain."
In parallel, and with the objective of developing an ecological transition that places people at the center, MITECO developed an Energy and Climate Framework that, as explained by Ribera, put "the same level" the preliminary bill to address this transformation , the planning – the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan – of the decarbonization of Spain in the next decade and the National Strategy of Just Transition. Three documents that were complemented with the Strategy against Energy Poverty.