2023-07-11 10:03:44
The International Institute of Law and the Environment (IIDMA) has presented at the Representation of the European Commission in Spain (Madrid), the European project “Debates and Actions on Environment and Climate” (DACE).
This project, funded by the European Union (EU) and coordinated by the Justice & Environment association, aims to sensitize to citizenship on policies and legislation on adaptation to climate change. Over a period of two years, it will be implemented in six Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia and Spain, with the IIDMA being the organization responsible for its development in our country.
“This project is of great relevance in this year that the COP 28 will close the work program on the global objective of adaptation established in the Paris Agreement” says Ana Barreira, Founding Director of IIDMA.
Citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about the climate emergency situation and the environmental degradation that we are facing. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are increasing and, as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned, even the most stringent mitigation efforts will not be able to stop severe impacts. of climate change. Therefore, it is crucial to set ambitious actions to increase our resilience and adaptability.
The DACE project seeks to address this challenge by promoting greater awareness and knowledge on adaptation to climate change and the existing legal-institutional framework at the international, European and Spanish level in this matter. In addition, the purpose of the project is to inform citizens about their “weather rights”. This is especially relevant because the negative impacts of climate change affect fundamental rights, which is why the number of climate disputes is increasing.
“It is necessary to build decarbonized societies, adapted and resilient to climate change, and today’s event shows that there is already an extensive legal-institutional framework to make it possible. Despite the fact that Spanish citizens are increasingly concerned about the impacts of climate change, they still have limited knowledge about what the Law requires and what is being done in practice to find solutions and adapt the territory of the EU and Spain. to this phenomenon”explains Alba Iranzo, senior environmental lawyer at IIDMA and coordinator in Spain of the DACE Project.
“The need to adapt to climate change has already been recognized in the very objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in addition to requiring the adoption of adaptation plans and measures. The Paris Agreement reinforced the need to adapt to climate change by including the global adaptation goal”, explains Ana Barreira.
At the level of the European Union, in application of the international regime to combat climate change, strategies and regulations on adaptation to it have been approved. At the presentation ceremony, the representative of the European Commission, Anna Dimitrijevics, Sub-director of the Unit for Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change of the General Directorate for Climate Action, pointed out the European Law on Climate and the Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change in the EU.
In the case of Spain, the Climate Change and Ecological Transition Law includes different obligations to adapt our territory to climate change, which have been reflected in the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2021-2030).
At the regional and local level, various adaptation measures are also being implemented. In this regard, representatives of the autonomous communities of Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and Galicia, as well as the Valencia City Council, highlighted the main advances being made to adapt their respective territories to the impacts of climate change. In addition, they explained how they are working to ensure that these actions contribute to achieving the climate objectives set by Spain and the EU in the 2030 and 2050 horizons.
The event has also had the participation of prominent specialists in the field such as María Salazar Guerra, Head of the Technical Service of the General Subdirectorate for Coordination of the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC), Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge ( MITERD); María López Sanchís, General Director of Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change of the Government of the Junta de Andalucía; María Sagrario Pérez, General Director of Environmental Quality, Sustainability and Climate Change of the Government of the Xunta de Galicia, among others.
Knowledge of climate change in Spain
Within the framework of the project, the opinion study “Knowledge and Perception of Climate Change in Spain“, commissioned by the IIDMA to the consulting company Take a Tip. This study gathers the opinion of 750 people, representative of the Spanish population, using as a reference the latest data published on the census by the National Institute of Statistics.
According to the results of the study, climate change is a problem that worries the Spanish population, especially the rural sector, where more than 50% of those surveyed are very concerned. The effects of extreme temperatures, the increase in extreme events, the decrease in water resources and drought are identified as the main impacts in our country.
The study also reveals that only 22% of the population consulted knows what “adaptation to climate change” means. In addition, the study shows a high lack of knowledge of the main regulatory instruments and climate change policies in our country. Despite this lack of knowledge, almost 62% of citizens consider it very necessary and are interested in receiving training in this regard.
In addition, almost 30% of those surveyed consider that their rights are affected by the impacts of climate change, and 46% would be willing to go to court to seek compensation, with due legal assistance.
Source: IIDMA
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