Luis Campos highlights the processing of the energy transition law, the measures of the reactivation plan and the EU funds for recovery
The parliamentary spokesperson for Nueva Canarias (NC), Luis Campos, explained today that his group will reinforce, in this legislative period, activity in the area of sustainability and the fight against climate change. Campos highlighted the upcoming processing of the Canary Islands law for the energy transition, the measures of the reactivation plan and the projects charged to European Union (EU) funds for recovery.
Without losing sight of the evolution of the coronavirus and the social and economic crisis caused, the NC parliamentary spokesperson stated that the Canary Islands “risk their future on the other great pandemic”, that of climate change which, unlike Covid19, will be “structural”.
Based on this approach, the government measures of an economic and social nature arising from the coronavirus public health crisis and the fulfillment of the progress pact of the Government of the Canary Islands, Campos referred to the commitment to approve this year the Law against Climate Change and the Energy Transition of the Canary Islands.
A proposal that is in the draft law phase, whose public exhibition period ended last week and that, once the contributions made have been analyzed, the Government Council will approve for submission and processing in Parliament as a bill.
For Nueva Canarias, this legislative proposal is very ambitious since it affects all sectors of society and 2040 is set as the year in which the Canary Islands will achieve decarbonization. Campos stated that, to achieve this objective, it will be necessary to articulate a multitude of projects, of greater or lesser dimension, that promote the penetration of renewable energies in the Archipelago.
He referred, in this sense, to the Chira-Soria pumped hydroelectric plant in Gran Canaria. A project promoted, within the eco-island model of the Cabildo and that Nueva Canarias defends, among other values, for being designed to avoid the emission of 200 tons of CO2 per year into the atmosphere and save 122 million euros per year in fuel imports.
A project that will be added to the already consolidated Gorona del Viento in El Hierro, a “reference in environmental change” in the Canary Islands, he stressed. For this reason, the NC parliamentary spokesperson announced that he will articulate different initiatives, in this period of sessions, related to the proposal for Gran Canaria.
Among other objectives indicated for 2021 by the Ministry responsible for José Antonio Valbuena, he noted the processing of the Climate Action Strategy, the Energy Transition plan and the Climate Action Plan, among others.
Furthermore, the coronavirus crisis has led, as he recalled, to the approval of the Canary Islands reactivation plan and the state recovery plan. Both should be promoted this year. In the first, a set of measures are articulated to deepen a sustainable development model based on the 2030 Agenda and with the second, he added, the projects of the Canarian public administrations selected to be financed with EU funds for recovery will be deployed.
Even the significant increase, since 2020, in migratory flows by sea that reach the Canary Islands coasts from the African continent, in the opinion of the NC deputy, are partially determined by climate change and the resulting conditions of poverty, “It will be another of the keys that we will have to face,” according to Luis Campos.
