Last week, Pedro Sánchez announced a 10-point plan to prepare the country for the climate emergency, with this warning: “If we don’t want to bequeath our children a Spain that’s grey from fire and flames, or a Spain that’s brown from floods, then we need a Spain that’s greener.”
According to a report in the Guardian, he said “waiting any longer would be dangerous and expensive, and he criticised those who deny the realities” of global warming. “Over the past five years, he said, the climate emergency had caused more than 20,000 deaths and cost the public purse €32bn (£28bn) in material losses.”
“We need to mobilise as a society against climate change, which is a common enemy that lies beyond ideologies,” he said. “Climate change kills. It kills. And that’s why we have to be aware of everything it represents in terms of insecurity and in terms of the risks it poses to our lives.
“The climate change denial that’s coming from an important part (of society), and which is growing as a result of the lies spread on social networks by some members of our political class, is as incomprehensible as it is worrying.”
According to the Guardian, he has proposed a series of initiatives including a state civil protection agency to coordinate crisis responses, a network of climate refuges across the country and a rethink of forest management and land use. Other measures include funds to prepare for, and rebuild after, climate-related disasters, improvements to firefighting capacity, a plan to increase water resilience in the face of floods and droughts, and initiatives to fight rural depopulation and help keep the land clear of combustible material.
He also pointed to the important role that farming can play, and particularly the benefits of extensive agriculture, careful grazing and efficient irrigation.
The plan was set for approval in cabinet last Tuesday and put out for public consultation.
Read the Guardian article here.