PAMPLONA, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Department of Rural Development and Environment of the Government of Navarra has recognized this Tuesday the 156 municipalities of Navarra that have drawn up a local plan or strategy for climate action and sustainable energy.
Specifically, 154 municipalities have drawn up their Action Plan for Climate and Sustainable Energy (PACES), designed and financed by LIFE Nadapta-CC, which is coordinated by the Department of Rural Development and Environment in collaboration with the public company Nasuvinsa, while that Pamplona and Tudela have drawn up their own plan. This means that 75% of the municipalities of the Foral Community have a local climate action plan with measures against climate change, a high percentage and that places Navarra at the head of the State.
During the recognition and awards ceremony, which took place at the Baluarte Auditorium and Conference Center, the Minister for Rural Development and the Environment, Itziar Gómez, highlighted “Navarra’s commitment to the environment” and has pointed out that “collaborative work has been essential in the process of drawing up the plans”. “From the Department of Rural Development and Environment, and through the Nadapta and Nasuvinsa team, the tool has been provided to the municipalities for the preparation of climate action plans, but it is important to emphasize that they have worked hand in hand with the local level that has united the smallest municipalities to develop plans in a grouped way to face climate change with joint measures adapted to their territory, which has allowed lowering the European regulations at the local level”, he indicated.
Gómez added that “moving from the global objective to local action with coordinated work and in a network between local entities, the Government and society is essential to advance in the achievement of the commitments following the European parameters” and has also expressed that “from the Government of Navarra, we show our commitment to continue offering the necessary tools that allow all Navarre municipalities to have their climate action plans drawn up, both the tools and the necessary accompaniment and collaboration”. “A commitment to achieve climate neutrality contained in our foral law on Climate Change and Energy Transition”, he said.
Accompanying the councilor have participated in the ceremony Itziar Almarcegui and Miguel Ángel González, of the Nadapta team of the Department of the Environment, as well as Nahia Villanueva, of Nasuvinsa, and the director general of Industry, Energy and Strategic Projects S4 of the foral Government, Uxue Itoiz.
The staff of the Nadapta and Nasuvinsa team have explained how they provide technical, methodological and economic support to local entities in the elaboration of their PACES. On his part, Uxue Itoiz explained that from his department they have been promoting the energy transition at the local level since 2016. To this end, Itoiz pointed out, “we make aid available to local entities for changing lighting, purchasing electric vehicles and installing self-consumption systems”. “Some lines of aid that, thanks to the Next Generation funds, exceed the 92 million euros that we are currently managing”, he stated. The General Director of Energy has also pointed out that “in addition to the aid lines, we are carrying out awareness and dissemination actions, so that both local entities and companies and the general public know how they can be more efficient and more sustainable”.
The Local Action Groups, TEDER, Consorcio de Desarrollo de Zona Media, Cederna Garalur and Consorcio EDER, as well as Sakana Garapen Agentzia, have facilitated the extension and coordination of these plans in their respective regions. The result has made it possible to specify a roadmap for local climate action in the majority of municipalities in Navarra, committed to and consistent with European climate objectives.
This action for the implementation of the PACES has funding of 600,000 euros, of which 360,000 euros are provided by Europe through the LIFE Nadapta project and 240,000 euros are provided by the Department of Rural Development and Environment.
During the recognition day, some specific examples of the PACES prepared and implemented by different local entities have been presented to contextualize and better understand the importance of these plans and their contribution to local climate action. This is the case of the municipalities of Lekunberri, Puente la Reina, Sangüesa, Villava and Uharte Arakil.
The Lekunberri City Council has presented Lekunberri ON, the strategic training and employment plan for this town that includes an energy community in the industrial field, the first energy community in Navarra and one of the first in the State. A local business energy community is a group of companies located in a local environment (industrial estate, etc.) that share and manage a set of renewable energy generation facilities under a collective self-consumption regime with the aim of reducing their dependence on the electricity market. , increase their energy efficiency, decarbonize their productive activity and improve the sustainability of their local environment. Other services may be added in the future.
Puente la Reina explained how municipal planning in the field of energy communities has given impetus to citizen empowerment. Its energy community has as its objectives responsible self-consumption, changing consumption habits and the fight against energy poverty.
The Sangüesa City Council has described its Emergency Plan for floods. These plans define the organization and actions of the own resources and services in the event of emergencies in the face of the adverse effects that can be produced by extraordinary rainfall, river floods or streams and ravines or dam breaks. In the case of Sangüesa, there are two sub-sections of areas with a significant potential risk of flooding (Aragón and Onsella rivers) and it may be affected by the emergency plans for the Yesa and Itoiz dams.
The Villava City Council, for its part, has explained that its PACES is now its local roadmap for the fight against climate change. Among the measures designed, they have already implemented an SIE or Energy Information System that allows managing bills and consumption of supplies, validating billing on a monthly basis, optimizing contracting costs, controlling energy spending and consumption, and analyzing energy consumption. of its municipal buildings, which makes it possible to have energy information in sufficient detail to identify priority areas of action.
Lastly, the Uharte Arakil City Council has explained that its PACES has been developed jointly in order to meet the climate objectives and the need for technical support to be able to implement it. Two measures stand out, the mini-hydraulic generation (which takes advantage of the potential of the Ganbeleta spring, the same one that supplies the town, to generate electricity with the installation of a microturbine for shared consumption) and the energy rehabilitation of buildings built in Itxesi through the elaboration of a Global Intervention Project (PIG).
