To not kill the planet

The conclusions of the working group III of the Sixth Report of the United Nations IPCC on climate change have seen the light in the midst of the barbarity of the invasion of Ukraine and its consequences.

The Paris agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires that global greenhouse gas emissions peak before 2025 and be reduced by 43% by 2030. That's a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. use of oil, 70% that of gas, and definitively eliminate coal as a source of energy.

Although in recent decades the world has been heading in this direction with multiple multilateral agreements and a progressively greater awareness of society, the war has also put this shift towards sustainability and, therefore, the entire planet, in a bind.

Today the double security problem that harbors the European energy model has become clear.

We are dependent on fossil energy sources —the main causes of climate change—, and on the countries that have them, including Russia, and this forces Europe and the West as a whole to react in the short term.

The paradox occurs when the announced measures to reduce Russian dependency do not accelerate the necessary energy transition, but, on the contrary, take us away from it.

The International Energy Organization, hand in hand with the United States, has decided to flood world oil markets with 120 million barrels of its reserves, an unprecedented initiative.

At the same time, the US has announced an increase in gas exports, a part of which will be extracted through the

that Europe itself rejects, and in some European countries coal is once again used or public aid is offered for fuel.

Today it is time to propose viable paths, aware that the model cannot be changed in a week.

But it would be a mistake of tragic dimensions if the war also ended the commitments and actions underway in the fight against climate change.

It is urgent to differentiate the short term, dominated by the need to provide immediate responses, from the medium and long term, where it cannot be forgotten that the objective is decarbonisation.

This means not initiating new investments in infrastructure related to fossil fuels, and accelerating the implementation of renewables —with agreements with the territories— and actions that lead to greater energy efficiency.

In short, it means defending the model designed in the EU and embodied in the European Green Deal and in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan,