The Director General of Energy and Climate Change, Pep Malagrava, has valued very positively “the commitment of citizens to have a climate-sustainable island model”.
The proposals will be made public in February once the process has been completed.
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The Director General of Energy and Climate Change, Pep Malagrava, has participated in the representation of the Government of the Balearic Islands in the second of the five sessions that make up the Citizen Climate Assembly of Mallorca and has reported that “the first data of the Energy Transition and Climate Change Plan of the Balearic Islands, which is promoting the Government, set a renewable target of 1600 MW for 2030, to achieve a renewable penetration of 37%”.
“That is why – insisted Malagrava – it is necessary to grow at a rate of 200 MW per year in renewable energies. It is a milestone that is getting closer and closer, and we see it with the great response that citizens are having in terms of self-consumption, but we know that it is not enough. That is why we are exploring all avenues to create a renewable mix that will allow us to reach this 200 MW/year growth in renewable energy”.
The Director General has valued very positively “the commitment of citizens to have a model of climate sustainable islands”. “The Citizen’s Climate Assembly is fundamental for the rooting of public climate policies, as they are the result of a collective decision-making process. Citizens have to be protagonists and these actions allow them to do so”, he added.
During the conference, which focused on energy production, Malagrava also explained the actions that the Directorate-General for Energy and Climate Change, which is part of the Vice-Presidency and Department of Energy Transition, is implementing to tackle climate change, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation. “For the first time, the government will allocate its own resources from the regional budget to help the municipalities of the Balearic Islands to carry out adaptation projects, specifically 1.4 million euros. We are talking about protecting ourselves from its effects, which are already here and will increase, even though we can mitigate them. This is a health issue.
The director general also explained that this Energy Transition process “is not only the responsibility of the administrations. We have to be able to involve all citizens and economic sectors along the way. And this process of listening, debating, and involving ordinary people, also helps us to answer the very important but complex question of “how to tackle the climate emergency in an effective and socially just way”.
“The Balearic Islands, like the whole of the western Mediterranean, will be one of the places where the effects of climate change will have the greatest impact. That is why adaptation planning is crucial in this decade. It is worth mentioning that the Balearic Islands have already presented the results of the PIMA Adapta Costas project, a study that shows how sea level rise would affect the sandy coasts of the Balearic Islands in various scenarios in the years 2050 and 2100. For this reason, the director general warned, “it is vitally important to continue to allocate resources to the island territories, which will be the first to be affected. Our coasts are already suffering, and if we do not speed up adaptation projects, the economic and social consequences will become evident in the coming years.
The Government of the Balearic Islands will continue to listen carefully and will value all the proposals that come to us to enrich this public debate. It will also incorporate them, as far as possible, into its policies and planning.
Climate Assembly
This Saturday, the Climate Assembly held the second of its five sessions. The group of 60 participants began the day with a group dynamic to continue with a learning and training phase where they listened to presentations by renowned experts such as the doctor of engineering and professor at the University of the Basque Country, Aitor Urresti, the Director of Energy and People at Ecodes, Cecilia Foronda, and the lawyer specialising in environmental law, Miquela Grimalt.
Professor Urresti spoke about the Balearic Islands’ energy system and stated that 90% of emissions in the Islands are linked to energy use. “The Balearic Islands have to rethink their energy system if they want to reduce emissions,” added Urresti. Lawyer Miquela Grimalt said that with the estimated population figures for the year 2050, it would take almost three planets like the Earth to provide the natural resources needed to maintain the current way of life. “It is essential that we embark on the path towards an energy transition prioritising the people who need it most so that they do not remain prisoners of fossil fuels, expensive energies and the most inefficient housing and equipment, with appropriate support measures for them”, said Cecilia Foronda, an expert in energy poverty.
During the day, several social actors such as the Rezero Foundation, Tirme, Greenpeace and Endesa also participated, and the successful citizen energy transition project La Palma Renovable, from the Canary Island of La Palma, was presented.
The third session of the Assembly will be held after the Christmas holidays, on 14th January in Pollença, and will focus on mobility (land, air and sea) and the change of economic model.