The installation of wind and photovoltaic parks to generate clean energy in Catalonia has been blocked for more than ten years and there are no prospects that it can be resolved. This is very serious for two reasons. In the first place, because it prevents meeting the emission reduction targets for 2030 set by the European Union to fight climate change. Secondly, because it aggravates Catalonia’s energy dependence on the rest of the State and on France. The consequence is a scenario of insecurity in the energy supply that particularly harms industry, on which a large part of the Catalan economy depends, and which mortgages the arrival of new investments to the territory.
The production of sufficient, cheap and clean energy is key to everyone’s progress and, therefore, there is no room for attitudes or approaches that put it at risk. At the time, the same or similar movements that now oppose the installation of wind and photovoltaic parks rejected nuclear energy. But thanks to it, as well as natural gas –promoted all by a visionary businessman such as Pere Duran Farell–, Catalonia has been able in recent years to have the necessary supply to meet the energy needs of its citizens and its companies. Now, with the advancement of technology and with financing from European funds, the country has a great opportunity to make a historic leap towards clean, sufficient and cheaper energy. It has the hours of wind and sun necessary for this, as well as the technology, companies and professionals to take on this great challenge.
Catalonia cannot afford a moratorium on clean energies but must activate them to the maximum
In this scenario, the worst that could happen to the energy future of Catalonia now is the moratorium on wind and photovoltaic parks agreed between ERC and the CUP in their agreements to form an eventual Government of the Generalitat. This is a pact against progress and in favor of economic and social decline. For this reason, it must be urgently reviewed and put back on the right track. The country cannot face any further delays in its energy tuning. It immediately needs a government that governs effectively in the interest of all and not only in defense of the interest of a minority formation.
The opposition to wind and photovoltaic parks is justified, to a large extent, in the landscape damage they cause in nature and in the eventual damage that may be generated in rural areas. But Catalonia must choose between polluting the atmosphere and accelerating climate change or opting for clean energies, adopting measures to minimize damage and establishing the most appropriate policies to duly compensate the rural environment, so that it can take advantage of the opportunity that is offered to it. presents to improve their living and economic conditions.
But all this requires a government that governs. Governing is not agreeing on moratoriums, which only aggravate problems, but rather seeking the best solutions, agreeing on them whenever possible and making decisions. We have repeated it over and over again: Catalonia cannot continue one more day in the current state of misrule and political uncertainty. The country’s situation is serious, with a deep recession caused by the covid, with growing unemployment and a high level of poverty that require laying the foundations for a powerful economic reactivation and the proper management of all the problems that accumulate in the country. This, among other things, requires legal certainty, future horizons and the promotion of new business projects, creators of wealth and employment, among which are all those related to renewable energies, the energy transformation process and the commitment to a new mobility that, in turn, must go hand in hand with the digitization of the economy and society. European funds can help us a lot, but, as we have said, the first thing Catalonia needs is a government that governs effectively and for everyone.
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