Spain’s government on Monday presented a €9-billion ($10.5-billion) energy-transition plan that would include making homes more energy efficient and providing near-free public transport to low-earners.
The project, which would be co-financed by the European Union, was announced as Spain confronts a global energy shock caused by the US-Iran war, and as it positions itself to cope with climate change.
“The energy revolution can’t be just for those who can change cars, put up solar panels on their roof or renovate their homes without subsidies,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said at the Social Climate Plan on Monday.
“It needs to reach everyone.”
The Spanish premier stressed that “we shouldn’t have to choose between making ends meet or making it to the end of the century”, at a time when he fears that the environmental movement could lose momentum due to denialist rhetoric that “does a lot of damage.”
For the plan to be adopted, Sánchez needs a majority of the parliament to back it, but his Socialist Party holds only a little over a third of the seats.
It calls for €4.7 billion to be set aside to make homes, public housing and neighbourhoods more energy efficient, and to promote communities sharing electricity and for solar panels to be installed on homes and in districts.
The other €4.3 billion would go to adapting transport, including in rural areas, and renovating fleets used by firms and independent workers.
A nearly free pass would also be given to people in low-income households and vulnerable groups.
Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge Sara Aagesen emphasized during the same event that this new plan is a “fundamental instrument” for “complex times,” in which “the climate emergency is a reality.”
With additional reporting by The Local Spain’s Editor Alex Dunham.
