Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural. Serranía Celtibérica
INDRUSEC
a) Realizar estrategias de transferencia efectiva de I+D+i para un desarrollo sostenible de la Serranía Celtibérica bajo las directrices de las ciencias sociales y humanidades.
ID: 191610233719-67
Lobbying Activity
Response to Climate Law
6 Feb 2020
Comments from “Asociación Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural Serranía Celtibérica”
On December 11, 2019, the European Commission announced the “European Green Deal” (COM 2019/640), which aims to “transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050”. For which it is indicated that “is essential to increase the value given to protecting and restoring natural ecosystems, to the sustainable use of resources and to improving human health”, as well as “careful attention will have to be paid when there are potential trade-offs between economic, environmental and social objectives”. For which it is announced that “the Commission will propose the first European ‘Climate Law’ by March 2020”.
However, the "European Green Deal" does not cover disadvantaged, rural and mountain areas, which have long reached climate neutrality and are the EU's CO2 sinks.
The announced ‘Climate Law’ must include compliance with Article 174 the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, referring to the “ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND TERRITORIAL COHESION”:
“In order to promote its overall harmonious development, the Union shall develop and pursue its actions leading to the strengthening of its economic, social and territorial cohesion. In particular, the Union shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favored regions. Among the regions concerned, particular attention shall be paid to rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition, and regions that suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps such as the northernmost regions with very low population density and island, cross- border and mountain regions.”
In this sense, we give as an example the Spanish interregion of the “Celtibérica Serrania”, with an extension of 65,824 km2, more than double that of Belgium, has a census of 460,613 people, which gives a density of 6.99 inhabitants/km2. It is a rural area, from severe demographic handicaps, with very low population density and mountain regions.
The European Parliament, within the "Green Deal European" program, has proposed the Fair Transition Mechanism by allocating an initial item of 7,500 million euros to the CO2-emitting mining regions. It is surprising that 2,000 million euros are allocated to Poland, and only 307 to Spain. The interregion of Serranía Celtibérica, according to the FAO international consultant and member of the “Instituto Serranía Celtibérica”, Javier García Pérez, in his study “The social cost of carbon: opportunities in the Celtiberian Serrania” (http://www.celtiberica/documents), has calculated that it should have an annual compensation of 383 million euros since it absorbs an average of 6 million tons of CO2 per year, 1,4 million more than those emitted by the Andorra thermal power plant, which will close in May 2020.
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