Greenpeace calls on Rajoy to end ‘dirty’ energy subsidy

Greenpeace legislation proposals call on Rajoy gov't to end 'sun tax' on solar energy. Photo: Markel Redondo / Greenpeace
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• Greenpeace España wants Rajoy gov’t to end ‘sun tax’, promote renewables
• Spain begins gathering input for Law on Climate Change & Energy Transition

On the eve of a two-day conference on Climate Change inaugurated today by Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and European Commissioner for Action for the Climate Miguel Arias Cañete, Greenpeace España has called on the Rajoy’s conservative Partido Popular (PP) government to “stop defending and subsidizing dirty and dangerous energies such as coal and nuclear” by undercutting renewables in the country’s national energy mix.

The Spanish affiliate of the international environmental campaigning organization demanded specifically that the Rajoy government end it’s its “unjustifiable inventions like the sun tax,” a duty levied by the government since 2015 on installation of solar panels by individuals and businesses and on the purchase of batteries for storage of solar energy, and to work to develop an ambitious new energy law that will help prevent the rise in global temperatures from surpassing critical levels.

The comments from Greenpeace España accompanied the release of its proposals for a new Spanish Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, toward which the Rajoy government has launched a national “debate” in order to gather input on the new legislation designed to place Spain in compliance with the international Paris Agreement on Climate Change, enacted last November and ratified by Spain in January following Rajoy’s inauguration to a second term in office.

The national discussion over climate change and transition toward clean energy sources was formally launched by the government today with the two-day conference organized by the government’s Spanish Office for Climate Change under the title “Spain, Together for Climate”.

Under the Paris Agreement’s first round of commitments, renewable every five years by signatory countries, Spain has agreed to reduce carbon emissions by 43 percent in the industrial and energy sectors before 20203 and by 26 percent in sectors that include transportation, agriculture, construction and waste management. Spain has also committed to make at least 27 percent of its total energy consumption renewable by 2030, representing an 11 percent increase in current level of 16 percent renewable energy consumption.

► Read More in Spanish at EFEverde, Energia16 and Greenpeace …

► Read Greenpeace proposals in Spanish for new Climate Change & Energy Transition Law …

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