• Groups say García Tejerina signals continued negative environmental policies
• Activists call for immediate ratification of Paris Accord on greenhouse gases
Environmental groups in Spain say they are disappointed with the re-appointment of Isabel García Tejerina as cabinet Minister of Fisheries, Food Resources and the Environment, calling the move by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) “bad news” for the environemnt.
Spokespersons for Greenpeace España, Ecologistas en Acción (‘Ecologists in Action) and SEO/Birdlife have said that Rajoy’s re-appointment of García Tijerina represents a continuation of policies during the previous 2011-15 Rajoy administration that were harmful for the environment and undercut Spain’s obligation to promote renewable energies and cut carbon emissions.
The environmental groups called for the Rajoy government to join 97 other countries and immediately ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change, which went into effect on Friday with signatory countries agreeing to address greenhouse gas emissions within the terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The environmental groups also called on newly appointed Minister for Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenca, Álvaro Nadal, to follow through on the PP’s agreement with the centre-right Ciudadanos party to rescind the so-called Energy Reform Law passed by the PP majority in Congress in 2012, which penalized wind- and solar-power producers with a 7 percent tax on renewable energy production in Spain.
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