This tool will facilitate and guide the decarbonization of the Spanish economy by 2050, a decarbonization that has to be socially fair.
The new draft of the draft Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition (APLCCTE) is a reinforced text in terms of ambition, governance, participation and transparency. After having been submitted to public information and hearing and incorporating allegations resulting from this process, as well as having been informed by the other ministerial departments, the next step will be their consideration by the Environmental Advisory Council (BED), the main meeting and participation body between the General State Administration and the social and economic sectors relevant to the environment. The Council will meet on Monday, February 10.
Subsequently, the draft draft will be dealt with in a Sectorial Conference with the Autonomous Communities and by the State Council, a step prior to its referral to the Council of Ministers before beginning its parliamentary process.
The vice president for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, stressed the importance of the draft "coming as soon as possible to Parliament for debate and enrichment by parliamentary groups."
The new text consists of 37 articles – in front of 28 of the previous text – distributed in nine titles – before eight -, four additional provisions, a transitional provision, a single repealing provision and eleven final provisions. The new title is dedicated to governance and public participation, establishing a Committee on Climate Change and Energy Transition, responsible for evaluating and making recommendations on Climate and Energy policies and measures, preparing an annual report that will be sent to the Congress of Deputies.
Mandatory low emission areas
In 2018, transport was the sector with the greatest weight in greenhouse gas emissions, 27%. By itself, road traffic accounts for 25% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, of these, one third is concentrated in urban agglomerations. It is also one of the main emitters of nitrogen oxides, with a very harmful effect on health.
The new draft establishes as an obligation that municipalities with more than 50,000 and insular territories establish low-emission zones no later than 2023 and stipulates that any measure that involves a regression of existing low-emission areas must have the previous report. of the competent State or regional administrations in environmental protection matters. Also as a novelty, the preliminary draft indicates that said municipalities and island territories promote measures of shared electric mobility.
Information map of charging points
In addition, to promote the expansion of the electric vehicle, the Government will develop and make available to the public an information platform on charging points; the Technical Building Code establish obligations related to the installation of charging points in new buildings and interventions of existing buildings; and the new facilities for the supply of fuel and fuels to vehicles, or those that undertake a reform that requires a revision of their administrative title, must install at least one electric recharge infrastructure with a power equal to or greater than 50 kW of direct current, with the in order to recharge the vehicle quickly.
Along the same lines, the new draft introduces obligations to install at least one quick -50 kW charging point in those service stations that, having a sales volume exceeding 5 million liters of diesel and gasoline, have principle of greater economic and financial capacity to meet the required investment. It is about 9% of the total gas station network.
It is also expected that the maritime transport and ports sector will gradually reduce its emissions, with a goal of zero direct emissions from ships when they are moored or anchored in the ports of competence of the State by 2050. This will be promoted, among others measures, the articulation and consolidation of sustainable logistics chains with origin or destination in ports, so as to reduce emissions. Similarly, annual targets for the supply of biofuels in air transport will be established, with special emphasis on those of an advanced nature and those from renewable sources of non-biological origin.
To achieve sustainable mobility, the draft maintains that all administrations must adopt measures to reach a car and light commercial vehicle park in 2050 without direct CO2 emissions. The necessary measures shall be adopted, in accordance with European regulations, so that new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, excluding historic registered vehicles and those not intended for commercial use, gradually reduce their emissions so that no later than 2040 they are vehicles of emissions of 0gCO2 / km. To this end, work will be carried out with the sector and measures that facilitate the penetration of these vehicles will be put in place, which will include support measures for R & D & I.
More resources for the fight against climate change
The new text of the draft increases the percentage of State's general budgets which should contribute to the objectives of climate change and energy transition. The final amount, which will be equivalent to the one agreed in the Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Union, will be in any case higher than the one previously set (20%).
It is added that the Government will promote adequate financing of the priorities in research, development and innovation of climate change and energy transition that are included in the successive Spanish Science and Technology and Innovation Strategies.
Information on climate change risks
The draft that reached the Council of Ministers in February 2019 established that entities admitted to negotiation in regulated markets, credit institutions, insurance and reinsurance companies and companies by reason of size must submit a report in which they make an impact assessment of the risks associated with climate change generated by exposure to it of its activity.
The new text incorporates an obligation to the Operator of the electrical system, the Technical Manager of the gas system and the Logistics Company of Hydrocarbons (CLH). Every two years and within the scope of their respective competences, these entities must prepare a report in which an evaluation of the risks and opportunities associated with a decarbonised energy system on the activities of the entity, its strategy and its financial planning is made.
Likewise, and in accordance with the decarbonization strategy by 2050, the Government may require the market operator, the system operator, the transporter and the distributors to prepare and present a decarbonization strategy in their field of action. In it, new solutions and adaptations necessary in the regulatory framework may be anticipated.
A country safer and less vulnerable to impacts
Among the novelties of the title dedicated to adaptation, the new version of the draft adds the consideration of climate change in food security. To this end, specific strategic objectives, associated indicators and adaptation measures will be established to mitigate food security risks associated with climate change, including the emergence of emerging food risks. In addition, a provision on the promotion and improvement of the absorption capacity of carbon sinks is added.
Both articles are added to articles on adaptation to climate change in urban development planning and management, building and transport infrastructure; protection of biodiversity from global warming; forestry policy and rural development; water and coastal planning and management.
Citizen participation
Another novelty of the draft is Title IX, dedicated to governance and public participation. In addition to the aforementioned Committee on Climate Change and Energy Transition, the text establishes that the autonomous communities inform the Commission for the Coordination of Climate Change Policies as of December 31, 2021 of the energy and climate plans that they have.
Likewise, it is established that the plans, strategies, instruments and provisions adopted in the field of combating climate change must be developed under formulas that guarantee the participation of the social and economic agents concerned, and the public in general.
Governance is also included to reinforce coordination on the different information obligations of the Government in this area and, in particular, of the data on greenhouse gas policies, measures, inventories and projections.
Objectives aligned with climate neutrality
The draft maintains the two major temporary references to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), introduce renewable energies and be more efficient in energy use: 2030 and 2050.
The objectives that are set mark a floor that can be improved upwards with the National Integrated Energy and Climate plans. Thus, in 2030, the goal is to reduce GHG emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990. With respect to 2017, the last year with consolidated data, this effort involves removing around 33% of emissions, it is that is, approximately one in three tons of CO2 that are currently emitted.
This reduction objective is consistent with the increase in ambition that the European Comission by 2030, which would go from the current 40% compared to 1990 to a fork between 50% and 55%. And as stated in the text of the draft, it can always be revised upwards, its regression is not allowed to respond to greater ambition at both the community and international levels.
The draft is set, also by 2030, to generate 70% of electricity with renewable energy; ensure that at least 35% of final energy consumption comes from renewables; and improve energy efficiency by at least 35% compared to a trend scenario.
The preliminary bill and the PNIEC they are two of the great pillars of Strategic Energy and Climate Framework for the period 2021-2030. These are two instruments that are complementary and consistent with each other. While the preliminary draft establishes the institutional framework whose main function is to give regulatory and economic signals that give stability and mark the direction of the country towards climate neutrality, the PNIEC is a reviewable planning instrument that defines the objectives of reducing emissions of effect gases greenhouse, penetration of renewable energies and energy efficiency, as well as the lines of action and the path to achieve them that according to the models used is the most appropriate and efficient. In this sense, the objectives established in both instruments are not contradictory, but rather that the preliminary draft marks an incremental ground by the PNIEC.
This effort to reduce emissions that Spain must make in the next decade, to be on the path of achieving carbon neutrality committed no later than 2050. In that year, and in line with the decarbonization strategy of the European Union, The electrical system must already be 100% renewable.
Strong impulse to renewable energies
The preliminary bill gives a decisive boost to renewable energy. Since 2021, auctions will be called to promote the construction of at least 3,000 MW of renewable facilities. The auctioned product will be the energy and the variable on which it will be offered will be the remuneration price of said energy, so that the result of the auctions positively impacts the price paid by consumers for electricity.
When summoning the auctions, it will be possible to distinguish between technologies, levels of manageability, criteria of location and technological maturity or other accords with the community regulations.
The draft includes an article to promote and facilitate energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources in the field of building. Similarly, the validity of the National Energy Efficiency Fund is extended until December 31, 2030.
Likewise, there is greater flexibility favoring the hybridization of the installations – which will be able to evacuate the electric energy using the same connection point and the access capacity already granted, as long as the mandatory technical requirements are met- and the increase in power within of maximum access capacity.
Just transition
The new draft maintains an exclusive title for Fair Transition measures, which defines both its national strategy and the specific agreements, and reinforces the participation of the autonomous communities.
On the other hand, fair transition agreements – whose objective is the promotion of economic activity and the improvement of the employability of workers in the transition to low-carbon development – may include priority access to part or all of the capacity of electrical evacuation, as well as the priority right to the use and volume of water of those concessions that are extinguished after the closing of installations of generation of electrical energy in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree-Law 17/2019, of 22 of November, by which urgent measures are adopted for the necessary adaptation of remuneration parameters that affect the electrical system and by which the process of cessation of activity of thermal power plants of generation is answered.
A long-demanded draft
This draft bill, which the Joint Congress / Senate Commission for the Study of Climate Change recommended to prepare the Government already in 2011, responds to the commitment acquired by signing the Paris Agreement and constitutes a regulatory framework that provides stability and certainty for guide the decarbonization of the different sectors of the Spanish economy by 2050 and facilitate a transformation thanks to which the country will gain in prosperity, security, job creation, innovation, technological development and social justice.
It also aligns with "The European Green Pact"-The European Green Deal-, agreed by the European Commission in December 2019, which establishes a new growth strategy to transform the European Union into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern economy, efficient in the use of its resources and competitive, and that will reach climate neutrality in 2050.
National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan Update
During the meeting it was also reported that an updated draft of the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (PNIEC) has been submitted to the European Commission. The new text has integrated all the recommendations made by the Commission, the allegations of civil society received in the public consultation process of March 2019 and includes new measures and greater detail in the information, reinforcing the objectives and results.
The public information process of the PNIEC Strategic Environmental Assessment Study. Once the consultation period is over and new contributions are incorporated, if appropriate, the document will be ready for final referral to the European Commission.
The updated draft of the PNIEC It proposes a path of decarbonization for the next decade consistent with the increase in ambition towards climate change that the European Commission has raised, as well as with the indications of climate science and with the demands of citizens. Specifically, proportionally, the level of effort in mitigating emissions of the updated draft is aligned with the fork in which the new European Union climate target for 2030 is expected to be located: between 50% and 55% . In that way, a solid foundation is laid to progress towards the climatic neutrality of our country, that is, to achieve zero net emissions no later than 2050.
Waste regulations
Also on the agenda were the draft Royal Decree that regulates the disposal of waste through landfill deposit and another that modifies the RD on the management of out-of-use tires and restrictions on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment These documents have already passed their public consultation phase and the observations and comments received to continue the processing are being studied.
Likewise, the environmental requirements that will be incorporated into the draft Royal Decree that establish the basic rules for the management of poultry farms have been analyzed.