The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has opened on Monday the political course with an act focused on global warming and. Although the negotiation of this agreement begins to shoot now, Sánchez has launched ten general lines to work on. Among the most concrete proposals is the creation of a state agency for Civil Protection and emergencies to improve coordination with this type of extreme events that, due to global warming ,. In addition, the president has raised the creation in collaboration with the municipalities of a national network to meet extreme temperatures.
Sanchez has asked the rest of political formations to not polarize with this matter. The intention of the government is now to open a round of consultations to try to close a pact with the parties, with all administrations, with social agents, scientists, agricultural and environmental organizations. “All the whole of society,” he said. At the moment, the Council of Ministers will address the document on Tuesday with the ten proposals outlined by Sánchez. And in Congress a subcommission will be created to address this possible agreement.
The Government believes that the PP will not have much political margin to oppose a measure such as the State Civil Protection Agency, although Sanchez himself has recognized that the moment of maximum polarization makes it difficult to close a state pact even in an issue that so clearly affects all autonomies like this. Sanchez has avoided expressly mentioning the PP or entering the clash with any autonomous president in particular, although he has clearly said that mistakes have been made in some autonomies with an insufficient investment in prevention and firefighters. He has also criticized the “denialism” of some political sectors, again without expressly mentioning anyone.
Sanchez has admitted that at such a tense political moment it can be “even naive” to propose such a pact. But he has warned that if you do not want tragedies to be repeated in the next summers and autumn, you must act. Sanchez has evoked other great agreements, such as the Toledo Pact or the Pact against Gender Violence, to highlight that “when Spain has needed it, the whole society has been up to par.”
Among all the data and records that has left this summer of climate crises in Spain, the president has highlighted two: in five years the State has had to disburse 32,000 million euros related to material losses linked to extreme events and that more than 20,000 people have died for causes linked to climate change (the majority would be premature deaths linked to heat) in this same period of time. This is, explained Sanchez, the same budget that has been invested in this time in educational policies and twice the victims of traffic accidents in Spain. Therefore, it has urged society to mobilize in the face of this climatic emergency.
In addition, the president has announced that there will also be agreements of agreements not only in Spain but also with neighboring countries. “The fires that we have suffered this year have also suffered by Portugal. And, therefore, we are going to propose to the Portuguese government and the French government that we can work together in that state pact against the climatic emergency. And, of course, we are going to tell the European Commission that we have to do everything except to reverse in what the ecological transition represents,” he said.
The rest of the proposals launched by the president on Monday have been less concrete, although they show the areas in which the Executive intends to focus the debate. For example, in reconstruction, with the creation of funds “with permanent state and regional resources” for this purpose they also serve to prevent disasters. Or maintain and increase “the technical and human means necessary to combat extreme events”, in reference to brigades and forest firefighters.
The government also advocates a new management model in which reforestation with mixed forests is promoted, with resistant species and agricultural and forest uses. Along the same lines, the proposals of the Executive go through promoting “extensive livestock”, “grazing” and “efficient irrigation.”
Sanchez has also shown the need to prioritize “water resilience”, with measures focused on fighting floods and droughts. And he has urged autonomies not to eliminate limitations to constructions, for example, in flood or fire risk areas. Finally, he has looked towards Brussels to, “demand more ambition to the EU.” “The time to drag the feet is over,” he warned.
“Climate change steps on our heels,” the third vice president and minister for the ecological transition,. The minister has been reviewing, such as the surface affected by the fires (“the largest in the last two decades”) or the heat wave lived in August, the longest and most intense third of those recorded in Spain in at least the last 50 years. “We face a new paradigm, that of climatic emergency,” the Interior Minister stressed. “We must further strengthen the National Civil Protection System,” he added.
Aagesen has stressed that this summer in the hands of fires or extreme heat, or a year ago with the deadly cold drop, climate change has become “a tangible reality” for the whole population. The vice president has insisted on these “indisputable signals” to justify the need for that pact against the climatic emergency. “We need a broad pact,” he said, “a country response” with a “commitment that transcends legislature.” They also have stressed that the government is “open to proposals.”
From the Ministry for Ecological Transition, contact with the scientific world has already begun and also with environmental and civil society organizations that have been working for years to address the climatic crisis. In fact, in this Monday in Madrid representatives of these sectors had already been invited.
The proposal of Pact, after the brutal wave of fires this summer, which has also been of record heat, has not been badly received among the world of scientists dedicated to climate change and NGOs. However, there is also great skepticism about the current political environment, which moves away from what would be needed to close such a pact. In fact, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has already implied in several acts.
