He June 5 The World Environment Day is celebrateda date established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. The objective of this day is to promote global awareness and action in relation to environmental protection.
World Environment Day is a call to action so that people become aware of their individual and collective responsibility in the protection of the planet. Caring for the environment is essential to guarantee a sustainable future for present and future generations.
Within the framework of this significant day, from a famous NGO, the authorities are called to focus on the effective application of laws that can protect nature and the environment.
Another World Environment Day without answers
In it World Environment DaySEO/BirdLife launches an alert: Spain will not be able to respond properly to the climatic emergency, or the biodiversity crisis, If their environmental laws are not decided in decisive.
Four years after the approval of the Climate Change Law, and with more than fifteen years from the Natural Heritage Law, the legal tools are, but the results do not arrive. The regulatory obligations remain far from becoming effective policies.
Asunción Ruiz, Executive Director of the NGO, states that “the Spanish environmental legislation is, in many aspects, solid and advanced; What fails is its application. The lack of effective coordination between the State and the Autonomous Communities is slowing the implementation of the necessary policies to deal with the global crisis.
This shows that, Without true coordinated environmental governance, we cannot advance effectively to face the great environmental challenges. ”
“Without environmental justice there will be no social justice. Today, World Environment Day, we demand a clear institutional commitment to comply with the laws. This is only possible with a robust evaluation system, with verifiable indicators that work as a true picture of environmental controls and that are discussed annually in Congress, with transparency and ambition ”, Ruiz adds.
What about the climate change law?
The Law of Climate Change and Energy Transition, approved in May 2021was born with the ambition to mark the course towards a neutral economy in carbon, resilient and socially fair.
However, four years later, the NGO considers that Its effective application is far from being underwaywhich calls into question the country’s ability to fulfill its climatic commitments and guarantee the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
One of the most relevant breaches is the delay in environmental taxation. Article 11 of the Law obliges to identify annually the fiscal aid for fossil fuels and elaborate a calendar for its progressive review and elimination.
Four years later, no calendar has been approved or progress has been communicated. Although the Government has already received in 2022 the White Paper on Tax Reform, with clear proposals to advance green taxation, these have not been incorporated into the regulatory framework. This Inaction compromises the objectives of decarbonization and remains effectiveness to the Climate Change Law.
Another non -developed essential aspect is the Binding environmental zoning For renewable energycollected in article 21. This tool must identify areas of exclusion and sensitivity due to its importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Although the deployment of renewable has accelerated in recent years, the cartographic tool provided for in the law has not been completed or acquired normative. This is causing a proliferation of projects in places of high environmental value, generating conflicts with rural communities and with the conservation of biodiversity.
The lack of advance in key structural aspects of the Climate Change Law also concerns, such as adaptation to climate change of protected spaces.
Article 24 establishes that, within three years since the approval of the law, it must Present an evaluation of the medium and long -term representativeness of the protected space networksincluding the Natura 2000 Network, compared to different climatic scenarios.
This evaluation has not been made public. In addition, the law forces the management plans for these spaceswhen reviewed, incorporate specific diagnoses, objectives and actions of adaptation, including indicators and measures to guarantee ecological connectivity, but have barely been updated.
Another relevant breach is the non -constitution of the Expert People Committee In climate change and energy transition provided for in article 37whose function is to guarantee an independent evaluation of the fulfillment of the climatic objectives and issue technical recommendations. His absence weakens the transparency and accountability of the government before the citizens.
To this are added other aspects even without effective development, such as Integration of climate change into urban planningpublic hiring or environmental education, as well as the reinforcement of adaptation policies in key sectors such as water, soil, agrarian or forestry ecosystems. All these delays compromise the country’s ability to face the impacts of climate change.
And with the Natural Heritage Law?
The organization also analyzes Law 42/2007 of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, which has been in force for more than 17 years, and still without some of its most essential instruments to protect biodiversity.
Among them, the absence of In danger of disappearance habitats cataloga legal mandate that has never been fulfilled. The NGO has insistently claimed its approval and requested that the coastal lagoonsone of the most threatened and deteriorated habitats are the first to be included.
Nor have the Biodiversity integration sector plansprovided for in the Law itself and in the State Strategy for Green Infrastructure, Connectivity and Ecological Restoration, approved in 2021. These plans should have oriented environmental action in sectors such as agriculture, energy, fishing or transportation, but today they do not exist. Its absence perpetuates disconnection between economic policies and environmental objectives.
Another key commitment, collected in the State Biodiversity and Natural Heritage Strategy 2030is the Delivery elimination for biodiversitya measure endorsed internationally. Spain was the first European country to recognize it in its environmental legislation, but almost two decades later There is not an official diagnosis that identifies these negative incentives, nor a plan for progressive review or elimination.
Finally, although the State Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity 2030 It was approved in 2022, many of its most urgent commitments are delayed or They lack concrete calendarwhich puts at risk its effectiveness and weakens its transformative potential at a critical moment for biodiversity.
Fragmented responses to a crisis that is real
The organization insists that the Ecological emergency cannot be faced with partial responses. Although Spain has assumed relevant commitments in climatic and biodiversity matters, the NGO considers that its fulfillment is stopped by the incoherence of other public policies.
Las Agricultural subsidies that promote harmful practices, fiscal policies that still favor the use of fossil fuels or the lack of ambition when incorporating environmental criteria in fishing policies and territorial planning and land use contrast with the objectives of decarbonization and recovery of nature.
From the NGO a truly integrated vision of ecological transitionthat a climate action, the protection of biodiversity and public health as interdependent pillars of a fair transformation. For this, it is essential to advance in a more effective and coordinated governance among all public administrations, exceeding current fragmentation.
Juan Carlos Atienza, responsible for the incidence unit for the green transition of the organization, Consider that “The response to climate crises, biodiversity or pollution cannot come from stagnant compartments.
We need aligned public policies and more ambitious, transparent and participatory governance. Only in this way will we guarantee that the set of our public decisions work in favor of the environment and the well -being of people”.