THE POLITICS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
At the centre of a political controversy is the Garona nuclear power plant.
BY PATRICIA LOPEZ VILLALON
The closure or continuation of the nuclear power station Garoña has become a symbol both inside and outside Spain of the political struggle to come to terms with climate change
Much acid rain has fallen down on Spanish politics since Mariano Rajoy, leader of the opposition party, mentioned his cousin, a physics professor who denied the scientific evidence of climate change.
Waking public opinion
That episode at least had the virtue of waking up public opinion to this question, and since then the debate has hotting up, far beyond the two degrees that the reviled G-8 (the eight richest nations of the world) have just fixed as the limit to avoid a planetary catastrophe.
Today, they are all ecologists. From the reports of the prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the electoral programs of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Popular Party (PP) in the last elections to the European Parliament, you can see the effects everywhere.
Nevertheless, we have seen how a debate on something that is already a question of State is being contaminated here with ideology and political opportunism.
Sustainable economy anyone?
Again, we have the two ‘Spains' set against each other in the question more directly tied to climate change: energy.
In general, the centre–left parties seem to lean towards a ‘sustainable economy' based on renewable energies, with an antinuclear speech.
The centre-right parties, realistic and pragmatic, bet for a ‘national energetic safety' and ‘the opening of a debate on nuclear power'.
The division has been revealed on the occasion of the pending decision of the Government to extend the life of the nuclear power station of Garoña or to decree its closing.
From carbon to renewable
The fight against climate change has to do with the transition from an energetic model based on carbon to another that is based on renewable energies.
That is why the nuclear power station of Garoña has turned into a symbol inside and outside Spain.
The European and worldwide nuclear industry, the environmental international movement and some foreign governments are waiting for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's decision on the plant of Burgos, revealing the energetic pulse that is throbbing in so many western countries.
In spite of the hesitations and the internal division inside the Executive - with the minister of Industry in favour of extending the license until 2019, Gerd Leipold, international director of Greenpeace, believes that Rodríguez Zapatero will decide to close it in 2011, a date that the environmental organizations accept as a lesser evil.
It will be - he said - “the right decision”, an “example for the rest of the world” and the proof of the seriousness of the president's bet in favour of clean energies.
In the forefront
Invited by the Greenpeace Spanish section, Leipold reminded that Spain – together with Germany, his country, - is in the forefront of the energetic future as the third world producer of wind power, with a spectacular growth in solar power.
And it is the moment to take some “steps forward”.
Closing Garoña would send “an unequivocal sign that (Rodríguez Zapatero) is serious about renewable energies”.
We hope that Zapatero continues in this way and is not influenced by the powerful nuclear lobby, because the world needs a different leadership that can take us out of the inertia that leads to the abyss of climate change, declared the environmental organization representative.
Patricia López Villalón, is a 25-year-old Spanish journalist currently studying the international Erasmus Mundus Masters course starting at the University of Aarhus (Denmark) and continuing on to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Hamburg (Germany), where she will undertake her specialization on Media Systems, Journalism and Public Spheres. She has experience in print and broadcast media and wrote about immigration issues for a Spanish regional newspaper for two years before joining the Erasmus Mundus programme.
