The document published last week is part of the campaign of Friends of the Earth Spain SOS Climate, called the Big Ask in the rest of Europe. The campaign demands laws in 18 countries to annually reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Real World Radio interviewed the head of Climate Change and Energy of Friends of the Earth Spain, Alejandro González, to know the reasons of the report in more detail and the real possibilities of creating a Spanish climate change law.

Gonzalez says that “it is absolutely necessary” to have such a law put in place in his country, which has exceeded the polluting emissions limits provided under the Kyoto Protocol. The activist says that 52 per cent of the Spanish emissions have increased compared to 1990, although the international agreement allowed an increase of no more than 15 per cent.

Gonzalez also highlights some positive experiences of the climate change laws in the UK, which will set a minimum emissions reduction of between 34 and 42 per cent, for instance in Scotland. These good precedent, added to the increasing emissions in Spain are two important reasons to pass a national climate change law, says Gonzalez.

The member of Friends of the Earth explains that the new report aims to bridge one of the biggest barriers to the implementation of a national law on climate change, which is the social and political ignorance of its advantages.

“We have to start from scratch”, says Gonzalez. The idea is based on the fact that “by law, we have a binding emission reduction target, and all the economic sectors will have to take responsibility for their own pollution”, says the activist.

The new report introduces two emissions reduction mechanisms, one is the carbon budget and the other the domestic reductions. The first one implies setting a maximum of greenhouse gas emissions on each one of the emitting sectors (services, agriculture, transportation) in a given period of time. Based on this, a carbon maximum is established for each sector, with legal obligations of emissions reductions and with the possibility of each one previously organizing to comply with this commitment.

Meanwhile, the domestic reductions would be achieved through technical, industrial and agriculture projects towards that end, with the intention of avoiding purchasing emission reduction certificates in developing countries.
Spain’s historic responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions is on the table. A national climate change law to reduce its pollution would be a government imperative, and not just a demand of the social movements and organizations that fight for climate justice.

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