The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, declared last Tuesday, November 5, when announcing an aid program for people affected by DANA in Valencia, that “climate change kills. We must adapt to this reality.
This statement is not gratuitous, it has been supported by scientific reports for years. Without going any further, in 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its status report which said – among many conclusions – that “an increased risk of death and injury from drowning was expected due to flooding. “Changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, coupled with rising sea levels, will predictably have extremely detrimental effects on natural and human systems,” emphasizes the document.
However, for the Valencian government chaired by Carlos Mazón, everything related to emergencies and climate change has always been secondary. Indeed, after reaching an agreement with Vox, he entrusted the far-right denialist party with the Ministry of Justice, on which the management of major natural disasters depends.
In addition to applying a budget reduction of 15 million in the accounts of the current year, the autonomous executive of Mazón took only four months to get rid of the Valencian Emergency Unit (UVE), a organization inherited from the previous government of the Pacte del Botànic and responsible for guaranteeing rapid intervention throughout the territory in the event of emergencies of meteorological or seismic origin, extinction of forest fires and tsunamis.
But it is not the only body with powers in actions related to climate change and, by extension, natural disasters, that Mazón, now without Vox in the Consell, plans to liquidate, since it has included in the draft of law to accompany regional budgets for 2025 the abolition of the Valencian Climate Change Agency.
Promoted by the Botánico government with Mireia Mollá (Compromís) as Minister of Climate Emergency, its objective is to act as a tool to coordinate and execute plans to reverse climate change and combat decarbonization in public institutions , the business world and society as a whole.
In addition, it was to propose and evaluate climate policies and sectoral action plans in the field of mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as well as periodically analyze the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions. and carbon markets; the vulnerability of natural resources and systems, economic sectors and territories to the impacts of climate change and will assess the degree of implementation of policies to combat climate change.
When it was created, at the end of the last legislature, PP, Cs and Vox agreed to reject this new body, estimating that it would mean “a new beach bar” to which the Consell would allocate nearly four million euros per year to create twenty positions.
A more lax ecological transition law
Law 6/2022, of December 5, of the Generalitat, on climate change and ecological transition of the Valencian Community is another of those that will undergo the most changes within the framework of the accompanying law and not precisely for increase planned emissions targets. reduction. For example, the content of articles referring to the Committee of Experts on Climate Change of the Valencian Community is deleted and purged and the Valencian Citizens’ Climate Assembly is also deleted.
In terms of emissions, while the current regulations set a reduction target of at least 40% for the year 2030, with the modification introduced it is established that “for the year 2030 at least, the reduction planned in accordance to the binding objectives set in the national and European Union reference framework.
