Spain began to apply this Wednesday a controversial decree to comply with the energy savings agreed with the European Union, framed in the bloc’s plan to limit imports of Russian gas. And immediately the controversy and conflicting opinions broke out.
The plan requires that the refrigeration of companies, commercial premises and public facilities does not drop below 27 degrees in summer and that the lights of shop windows and unoccupied buildings be turned off at night.
The initiative, approved by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez last week, caused social and political controversy due to the opposition from regions governed by the right.
These autonomous communities will apply the measures, but question its effectiveness and reproach that they did not agree with them or with the affected economic sectors, and Madrid announces that it will appeal them in the Constitutional Court.
The measures, which in reality have already been implemented since May for public facilities, are now applied in “commercial and cultural spaces, department stores, and (…) airports and train or bus stations,” said the Minister of Ecological Transition, Theresa Ribera Ribera.
“In these properties, the heating must be maintained at a maximum of 19 degrees Celsius in winter and at a minimum of 27 degrees Celsius in summer,” he announced at a press conference after a council of ministers.
The Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain, Teresa Ribera Rodriguez,. Photo: AP
The shop windows they will have to turn off at 10 at nightas well as the illumination of monuments, said the minister.
For his part, the director of the energy saving institute of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Joan Groizard, explained to public TV that “the objective of this plan is to save gas to prepare for this winter, in case ( Russian President Vladimir) Putin decided, in the face of sanctions, to cut off gas supplies to Europe”.
The decree, in force until November 2023, does not specify the sanctions in case of non-compliance.
As part of this “Energy Savings and Management Plan”, businesses that are air-conditioned “must have automatic locks on the access doors to prevent them from being permanently open, with the consequent waste of energy lost to the outside,” said a Ministry statement.
reactions
Spaniards are reacting in very different ways to energy saving measures. Some take them with indifference, because they think they will be of little use. Others, however, are more receptive, despite the fact that the reduction of air conditioning in almost all places came into force when Spain faces the most intense heat wave in its history.
Spaniards will have to save electricity in the midst of a heat wave. Photo: REUTERS
“It’s not bad here in the center,” says a man when asked by RFI.
“It’s logical, because seeing the lack of energy crisis there is, it is necessary to look for saving measures in some way,” another Madrid resident is sympathetic.
On the contrary, many others are shown in disagreement With the measures. “I think they are not designed for everyone. There are certain places where we cannot be at 27°C. It is impossible, we are dying of heat, ”says a woman.
Meanwhile, some bar managers respond that they had already regulated the air conditioning for a long time.
“That I always have it at 27, not now because Mr. Pedro (Sánchez, president of the Spanish government) said so, but rather I always have it at that temperature because if not, with the lowest temperature it will no longer stop. and he is walking all day”, says a manager with the satisfaction of having anticipated the new regulations.
In any case, we will have to wait to find out if these measures really take hold among a population that is very divided on how to deal with the rise in gas and electricity prices.
The 27 countries of the European Union pledged in July to do “everything possible” to reduce their gas consumption by at least 15% between August 2022 and March 2023, compared to the average of the last five years of the same period.
Emphasizing their lower level of energy connection with the rest of the continent, Spain and Portugal managed to get Brussels to reduce their target to 7%.
Source: RFI and EFE