Pedro Sánchez proposes a State Pact to tackle the Climate Emergency between all administrations and with the cross-cutting support of civil society

The President of the Government of Spain has announced that the Council of Ministers will approve tomorrow the roadmap to bring this pact to fruition, with 10 specific commitments, including the creation of permanent funds with national and regional economic resources.

Cuzco Ministerial Complex, Madrid

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the event closing (Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The head of the Executive has proposed a State Pact to tackle the Climate Emergency, involving civil society, employers and workers, and reaching an agreement between the political forces and all the competent administrations: the Government of Spain, the autonomous communities, the provincial councils, councils and town councils, and the city councils. "If we want the coming summers not to bring new misfortunes and the coming autumns not to hit us with new floods, we have to act now, and we have to do it together, united. Collectively, in a coordinated and cooperative manner, sustained over time, and as a state policy," he pointed out.

At the opening act of the political year, Sánchez asked "not to use this issue to polarise, leaving it out of jurisdictional, territorial and partisan disputes", and recalled that "every time Spain has had to face challenges that transcend ideology, Spanish society as a whole has always been up to the task", as happened with the Toledo Pact, with the State Pact against Gender Violence, renewed in this legislature, with the measures to reduce traffic accidents, or with the efforts that had to be made to overcome the pandemic.

"We've done it before, I think we can do it again. We must live up to what the country demands of us and what we have to do is turn down the noise, sit down, listen to each other, negotiate, agree between all the administrations, with the cross-cutting support of society, to achieve this State Pact in the face of the Climate Emergency", which "will help us to prevent, anticipate, manage and overcome heat waves, fires, and DANAS which, unfortunately, are becoming more frequent and destructive", he demanded. "Because if we don't want to bequeath our children a Spain that's grey from fire and flames, or a Spain that's brown from floods, then we need a greener Spain," he added.

10 concrete commitments

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the event closing| Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Sánchez announced that the government has been working in recent weeks on an initial proposal, open to discussion and amendments, with 10 specific commitments.

Firstly, the government proposes creating funds with permanent resources, endowed with national and regional economic resources, which will serve to accelerate the reconstruction and recovery of municipalities and landscapes hit by extreme weather events, and to prevent this kind of tragedy by financing clean-up, refurbishment and construction work at the municipal level.

Secondly, "that the administrations commit to increasing and maintaining throughout the year all the technical and human resources necessary to prevent and combat extreme weather events". This means having stable, well-trained fire brigades, brigadiers and forestry agents, equipped with the right vehicles and technologies. "It means committing to public policies. And it means understanding that there is no point in saving one euro on prevention if you then have to spend a hundred on response and a thousand on recovery," he added.

The third proposal is that the administrations commit themselves to "continue improving coordination and shared decision-making in crisis situations" and to this end the creation of "a State Agency for Civil Protection and Emergencies to strengthen and guarantee the proper functioning of the system" is proposed.

Fourthly, Sánchez spoke of "moving towards a model of forest management adapted to the social, economic and climatic realities of the 21st century". We must promote reforestation with mixed forests and fire-resilient species, preventive silvicultural treatments, and sustainable use of forest resources.

The fifth measure would be to "deploy a National Water Resilience Response aimed at increasing the capacity of our towns and cities to cope with floods and droughts". We must approve new water plans, update land-use planning regulations, further limit building in flood-prone or fire-risk areas, and adapt our infrastructure to the new climate ecosystem.

In sixth place, we must adapt our legislation and our territory to temperatures and heat waves that will become more severe and prolonged each year, and for this reason, the Executive proposes "creating an extensive network of climate shelters throughout the country". We also propose extending shaded corridors and green infrastructure in our urban centres, creating a system of assistance for vulnerable people, and establishing new labour standards to protect workers from heat stress.

The seventh proposal is to "recognise and enhance the essential role that the rural world plays in protecting the environment and combating extreme weather events. On this point, the President recalled that the Government has been deploying a global Demographic Challenge strategy for years, with resources and means, and advocated continuing to deploy new economic aid and tax incentives, a network of reinforced services to stimulate population, and programmes to promote green employment, especially in the bio-economy and catering. He also called for strengthening the contribution of the forestry sector to the fight against fire, droughts and torrential rains.

The eighth proposal is to promote agroforestry, extensive livestock farming, regenerative agriculture, managed grazing, and efficient irrigation, among other practices; and the ninth commitment is to promote a civic culture of prevention and reaction from the institutions, building on initiatives that have already been agreed with all the autonomous communities, such as the civil protection emergency training programme that will begin this academic year in all non-university education centres.

Finally, all administrations need to commit to accelerating the ecological transition and to demanding greater ambition from the European Union. "The time has come to comply with the Paris Agreement and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. It is not an ideological whim, nor a political strategy, it is the only thing that will allow us to avoid environmental disaster and leave our children and grandchildren a prosperous and safe Spain".

Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

After outlining the general lines of the proposal, Sánchez announced that tomorrow, the Council of Ministers will approve the roadmap to bring the State Pact to fruition, the steps that the Executive will take and the contents presented today. He also explained that he wants the agreement "to have all possible contributions, through an open, democratic and fully participatory process" and to this end we will immediately launch a public consultation process in which we will invite all parliamentary groups, regional and municipal governments, social agents, the scientific community, rural organisations, environmental groups, bodies fighting against extreme weather events, and all citizens to participate.

Proposal to France and Portugal and parliamentary subcommittee

Sánchez also announced that the Government of Spain will present the proposal to the neighbouring governments of France and Portugal, and to the European Commission to explore with them possible synergies and avenues for collaboration.

The government has mobilised all available resources to fight the fire

During his speech, Sánchez stressed that in August, Spain dealt with 130 fires that devastated some 330,000 hectares of land (an area equivalent to almost six times the size of the island of Ibiza). For this reason, he expressed his condolences to the families and colleagues of the four people who lost their lives this summer fighting the fires, to those injured whilst undertaking fire-fighting tasks, and to the hundreds of local residents who lost their homes, farms or properties.

The President stressed that, faced with this situation, the Government of Spain "mobilised all available resources" to support the competent regional and municipal institutions: more than 3,400 members of the Military Emergency Unit, 26,000 members of the State Security Forces and Corps, 650 forest brigade reinforcements, and some 300 European troops, activated through the Community Civil Protection Mechanism. "We are talking about the largest human and technical deployment that has ever been made in Spain to fight fires," he stressed.

He also explained that the Executive is continuing to work on three clear priorities: "extinguish the fires that remain active, transfer the economic aid and extraordinary resources that we approved last week to speed up the reconstruction and recovery of the affected municipalities, and do whatever is necessary to ensure that this tragedy does not happen again". In relation to the last point, the head of the Executive remarked that "sixth generation fires are not extinguished in summer, they are extinguished in winter and autumn" and that is why we must take advantage of the months ahead of us to understand what has happened and act accordingly".

In his view, the terrible wave we have experienced this year is not the result of chance, nor of a pyromaniac plot, but the result of three fundamental factors. The first is "an inadequate prevention policy, reflected in the lack of plans implemented, in the absence of advanced analysis and forecasting tools, and in fire brigades and forest brigades that, in certain areas, were not sufficiently staffed".

The second factor is "inadequate land management", which has resulted in forests laden with biomass, neglected roads and firebreaks, lack of native and fire-resistant species, depopulated municipalities and obsolete infrastructures. And third, "a climatic emergency that makes today's fires much more virulent, unpredictable and lethal than those of the past". A climatic emergency whose impact is already undeniable" and which, moreover, "is not limited to fire or summer", but has been causing extreme weather events in the last 5 years, with colossal snowfalls such as Filomena or with 15% more DANAS. A situation that has caused 32 billion euros in material losses to our country and the death of more than 20,000 people. Figures that make climate denialism "as incomprehensible as it is worrying".

Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The event was attended by the Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen; the Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas. It was also attended by the First Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Treasury, María Jesús Montero; the Second Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Work and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares; the Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños; the Minister for Defence, Margarita Robles; the Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente; the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría; the minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu; the Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres; the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez; the Minister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun; the Minister for Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo; the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant; the Minister for Equality, Ana Redondo; the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López.

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