Ecologists call on Spanish gov't to adopt new climate law

  04 December 2019    Read: 1483
Ecologists call on Spanish gov

Spain's leading ecological organizations said on Tuesday that the adoption of a new law on "climate change and ecological transition" must be the first measure undertaken once a new government passes an investiture debate in the country, Azvision.az reports citing Xinhua.

The leaders of the Spanish branches of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Greenpeace, SEO Birdlife, Ecologists in Action and Friends of the Earth presented their demand at a joint press conference held on the second day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP25, which opened here on Monday.

Their press conference also coincided with the first session of the Cortes (Spanish parliament) in the wake of the Nov. 10 general election.

That election once again left acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) well short of the 176 seats needed for a majority in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies (lower chamber of the Cortes).

Although the PSOE has reached an agreement with the left-wing Unidas Podemos party, Sanchez still needs to win the backing of at least two of Spain's smaller parties before he will be able to form a government.

"We ask for the formation of a government and a parliament and that the first thing it does is to pass a climate change law ... The government has to realize that the fight against climate change has to be a priority and the center of all of its policies," said Juan Carlos del Olmo, general secretary of the Spanish branch of the WWF.

Del Olmo said that combating climate change was "a call to be responsible" and not an issue that Spain's divided political parties should use to score political points.

"This is a moment for all of the parties to reach an agreement," he said.

Paco Segura, coordinator of Ecologists in Action, stressed the need to move towards a sustainable transport policy given that transport "produces the the largest amount of greenhouse gases in Spain."

"We need non-motorized mobility, fewer planes, fewer cars and to start abandoning fossil fuels," Segura said.


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