NASA: 2020, one of the warmest years 1:38
(CNN Spanish) -
Many citizens spent several months in confinement, industrial activity was considerably reduced and greenhouse gas emissions even plummeted by 18%, according to data from the Observatory of Sustainability in Spain. An impact that is positive for the environment, but that did not prevent this past 2020, a year marked by the covid-19 pandemic, from going down in history as the warmest year for Spain and Europe. This is confirmed by the study presented this Friday by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), which affirms that it would also have been the warmest year on a global scale.
According to the AEMET, the temperature in Spain has increased 1.7 ° C since pre-industrial times, and around 2 ° C in the whole of the European continent.
An anomaly that is associated with the increase in extreme phenomena such as heat waves, causing the death of around 1,800 people per year in the last five years.
"Two out of three days had temperatures above normal, compared to only a third that were lower," reflects in the report.
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This rise in temperatures has also been registered in the marine waters that surround the Iberian Peninsula, where this past year it was certified that they were 0.5 ° C higher than usual.
But the increase in temperature is just one of the appreciable consequences of climate change in Spain. According to estimates by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, a reduction in the flow of the main rivers of the Iberian Peninsula has already been observed since the second half of the 20th century, due, among others, to changes in the pattern of seasonal rains. This without forgetting the risk of desertification that looms over the country, placing it as one of the three countries of the European Union with the highest risk of fires.
In order to fight against this growing threat, the Spanish Congress approved this Thursday the first Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition. An initiative that establishes as priorities to reduce 23% of gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990, to ensure that renewable energies represent a minimum of 42% of final energy consumption and that 74% of the electricity system is generated by from renewable sources of energy.
A regulation that has been generally well received by environmental organizations, although they have called it unambitious.
This is the case of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Spain, from which they emphasize that the measures included in the approved text "will represent an advance with respect to the current situation", but will not contribute to limiting the rise in global temperature by 1.5 ° C.
On the other hand, from Greenpeace they point out that the goal of reducing greenhouse gases until 2030 should have been set at 55%, and not the current 23%.
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