The PNV, PSE and Bildu agree on a Basque Climate Change Law, despite the pre-electoral context

With Basque politics at a pre-electoral impasse and the pre-campaign about to start, the three main parties in the Basque parliamentary arc have achieved this Friday an unusual consensus in contexts prior to elections. The PNV, PSE-EE and EH Bildu have reached an agreement on the Energy Transition and Climate Change Law Project, a law that includes, after the contributions of the national coalition, a process of disinvestment in exploration or exploitation projects of fossil fuels to reinvest said funds in renewable energy.

The two formations in the Basque Government, PNV and PSE, did not need the support of EH Bildu to carry out the law, since they have an absolute majority in the Basque Parliament. However, the interests and positions of the three parties have ended up converging, contrary to what happened a little less than a month ago with the most important law of the legislature, that of Education. In this way, the law goes ahead with the support of 83% of parliamentary representation.

Among other approaches, the Law includes the creation of a fee or direct tax for the implementation of renewable energies on non-developable land or the obligation to allocate 2.5% of public budgets to climate action actions.

Within the agreement reached between the three forces, important new features have been included with respect to the initial text. In the field of governance, for example, powers will be attributed to the Environmental Advisory Council and the Citizen Assembly of the Environment; the creation of a Scientific Committee will be promoted; and the creation of the Basque Office for Energy Transition and Climate Change will be promoted.

Regarding the objectives and commitments established by Law, quantifiable goals have been included for the reduction of greenhouse gases, the increase in energy efficiency, and the promotion of renewable energies in the Basque Country.

Likewise, measures have been incorporated to promote renewable energies and facilitate access to them for companies and citizens, communities or cooperatives, while references have been included to the financing of these policies. In fact, to achieve this objective, it has been agreed to create a renewable energy canon and a social climate fund, as well as the incorporation of the energy and climate perspective in public budgets, with the commitment to allocate to this type of initiatives 2.5% of them.

The agreement was presented this Friday at a joint press conference by representatives of these three parties.

Jeltzales and socialists have highlighted that this “majority” support will guarantee a “stable basis” to carry out the public policies and regulations necessary to move towards climate neutrality and the promotion of energy efficiency.

Furthermore, they have stressed that the contributions incorporated into the project, through the accepted or agreed upon EH Bildu amendments, have allowed the text to be “enriched” in a “substantial” way.

The PNV parliamentarian Unai Grajales and the PSE-EE representative Alberto Alonso have agreed that this is an “ambitious” law with “larger and more quantifiable” objectives.

From both formations it has been recognized that the approval of this Law was “an objective of the legislature” for the Basque Government, and that this objective “will be met”, and will be aligned with international policies and regulations, as well as with the Institutional Declaration of Energy Emergency of 2019 signed by the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu.

The representatives of the PNV and the PSE-EE have stressed that the new norm, together with the Energy Sustainability Law of Euskadia approved 2019, “will provide a stable legal framework to achieve the objective of climate neutrality by 2050.”

For his part, EH Bildu parliamentarian Mikel Otero has assured that the contributions of his group have managed to “reorient” the initial project of the Basque Government after it has agreed to modify some of its contents.

“Our objective was to transform a bad bill into a good law, and we have achieved it,” said the coalition representative, who assured that the original text “has been substantially improved and enriched.”

Mikel Otero added that, with the future Law, “a common minimum floor is established to accelerate the energy transition and the fight against climate change.”

The representative of EH Bildu has stressed that this agreement “has only been possible by raising our gaze, abstracting from the pre-electoral context and understanding that there are strategic policies that require leaving aside tactics and thinking in terms of the country.”

Another of the contributions of the sovereigntist coalition consists of the establishment of renewable energy quota objectives and the reduction of emissions and energy consumption. These objectives – as explained by Otero – “combine ambition and realism”, given that the law establishes “demanding” minimums, although – at the same time – “it leaves open the possibility of increasing ambition in planning.” .

EH Bildu’s Lehendakari candidate, Pello Otxandiano, has also reacted to this agreement with a message on social networks. According to him, the draft law was “bad”, but its training “has improved considerably.”

Otxandiano has pointed out, through social networks, that “the ecological crisis is here” and we cannot “wait any longer.” In this sense, he has a “positive” assessment of the agreement reached in the Basque Parliament on the Energy Transition and Climate Change Law. In his opinion, “it is possible to achieve good laws when, leaving the comfort zone, the common interest and the interests of the country are prioritized.”