"Spain has worked hard to gather public and private authorities of the highest level for Carbon Expo, only six months ahead of the COP 21 in Paris", says Isabel García Tejerina

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Affairs, Isabel García Tejerina, spoke today at the opening ceremony of Carbon Expo in Barcelona, where she stressed that "Spain has worked hard to gather public and private authorities of the highest level for this benchmark international fair at a unique moment only six months ahead of the Climate Summit - COP 21 - in Paris".

Presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI, the opening ceremony was also attended by the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres; the European Commissioner for Climate Change and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete; the Special Ambassador for Climate Change of France, Laurence Tubiana; and the Vice-President of the World Bank, Rachel Kyte, among others.

Carbon Expo, at a unique moment

Isabel García Tejerina explained that this fair "is a meeting point that has proved fundamental to the effective promotion of carbon markets and currently offers an international showcase that is helping to strengthen multi-lateral action against climate change".

"Furthermore, this year's Carbon Expo is especially relevant because we find ourselves at a unique moment that will surely go down in history only six months ahead of the upcoming Paris Summit where the international community must agree on the new international climate regime for a truly global response to climate change as from 2020", said the minister.

Isabel García Tejerina went on to say that "climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing modern society and its enormous and far-reaching implications mean it is also a challenge for current economic systems".

Climate change, a fight but also an opportunity

The minister also described this fight as a unique economic and social opportunity in the history of the world "because it opens a door for us to new low-emission and entirely innovative development possibilities. In these changes, we must all see an opportunity to do things well, to promote new growth options capable of generating sustainable production and jobs, aimed at improving quality of life for the people and, in short, building a better world".

In her opinion, these changes have already begun to take place. "For example, the EU has managed to grow its economy by over 44% since 1990 while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 19%", she explained. This commitment to reducing emissions was confirmed when the 2030 Climate and Energy Package was adopted, under which the 28 Member States have unilaterally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 when compared with the figures recorded in 1990.

Isabel García Tejerina stressed that "it is very important to remember and insist that mitigation measures are not at all incompatible with economic growth and national development. "We must all - governments and companies - work together to show that the fight against climate change will be the basis for sustained and sound growth moving forward", she added.

Commitment from the EU and Spain

In this regard, she recalled that "the European Union and Spain have already committed to this path, facilitating investments that are low in emissions, efficient in the use of resources and supportive of business development that seeks new technologies capable of offsetting the effects of climate change".

In Spain, Isabel García Tejerina stressed that the Government of Spain's climate change policy has focused on investing in our country to discover that potential in new business areas and helping those companies wishing to do so, embark down that path towards a low-carbon economy.

National policies to combat climate change

"The Government of Spain has implemented national policies on climate change. These policies help Spanish companies reduce emissions while creating jobs and boosting economic activity. And we have demonstrated that it was not impossible", she said.

In this regard, the Spanish minister highlighted the launch of the Clima Projects - "an initiative we launched in 2012 and that has already proven itself to be a fine example of how to generate economic activity in Spain by creating over 3,000 jobs in sectors associated with action against climate change".

"We are helping Spanish companies invest in new projects that reduce emissions and we are buying those reductions at a price of 7 euros per tonne of CO2, which we also increased to 9 euros per tonne reduced this year, in order to boost the price signal for CO2", she said.

The minister also highlighted the Environmental Action Plans (Spanish acronym: PIMA) that incentivise low-carbon economic activity and private investment in various areas: renewal of the commercial vehicle fleet (PIMA Aire); renewal of hotel infrastructures in Spain (PIMA Sol); renewal of farming equipment (PIMA Tierra), renewal of buses and freight transport vehicles (PIMA Transporte); and, recently, the improvement of waste treatment (PIMA Residuos).

"The PIMA Aire Plan, for example, was launched in 2012 to modernise the commercial vehicle fleet and foster their replacement with more efficient models. This has led to clear economic and productive benefits for Spain that have not only positioned the country as the leading producer of commercial vehicles in the European Union but also achieved the environmental improvement we sought", explained the minister.

Isabel García Tejerina concluded by highlighting "the major efforts by Spain in recent years to recover from an economic crisis that hit us very hard, and we can be proud to say that we did so by fostering our environment and the transition towards a low-carbon economy".