Spain have recently announced their ambitious plans to be entirely reliant on renewable energy by 2050. Their war on climate change will set the standard for other nations to follow suit and these changes surely can’t come soon enough. 2018 brought us extreme temperatures in some countries with longer spells of warm and extreme weather - we had snow in March and some rather impressive storms! There should be no doubt that this change in weather is caused by man-made climate change.
An impressive 3,000 MW of wind and solar power is set to be installed during the next decade alone in Spain.
This ambitious plan could see emissions produced by Spain cut by a massive 90 percent. To achieve this the country will have to increase budgets for renewables significantly, planning on banning oil and gas exploration as well as beating EU targets of 32% renewable energy generation. Spain plans to have a 35% target for not only renewables but also energy efficiency by 2030. By 2030 they plan to cut greenhouse emissions by 20%.
The Spanish nation's determination is commendable. If we are to make a positive change, every country in the world needs to follow suit and commit to such plans.
Laurence Tubiana said Spain “is showing the European Commission the way”
In their plan, Early Retirement schemes will see Spanish coal mines closed and people retrained in jobs in renewable energy and restoring the environment, and buildings shall not be leased unless they have nearly zero grid based energy consumption, showing just how serious they are about meeting these targets and educating the public on climate change and the benefits of clean energy.
These plans come after it was said that Spain has struggled to meet targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the past, blaming spells of dry weather causing a rise in emissions - 338.8 million tons of CO2 to be exact. Hydroelectricity could not be used during a drought and as a result coal took over. These are the kinds of problems that must be overcome if Spain is to reach the targets set out by 2030.
Solar power Europe’s James Watson said
“it is exciting to see Spain setting the pace in its commitment to a 100% renewable powered future”, adding that it confirms that “it is possible to power large economies by renewables in the near future”.
Spain has the fifth largest economy in Europe so it important they take action and set an example, and that rides on the climate change plan being passed in parliament. The current government will have to rely on other parties for the plan to be passed as they currently don’t hold enough seats.
This is an important step forward for the country and could hopefully spur others on to ramp up efforts to tackle climate change over the next decade.
Christina Figueres says:
“It sets a long-term goal, provides incentives on scaling up emissions technologies and cares about a good transition for the workforce.”
