Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchéz urged workers to ditch their ties as an energy-saving measure during the country’s heat wave.
Updated just now
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It reports BBC.
Sanchez presented the proposal at a news conference in Madrid on Friday.
– I want everyone to notice that I’m not wearing a tie, says Sanchez.
– This means that we can all save energy.
The Prime Minister’s proposal was aimed at both the public and private sectors, and the idea behind it is that there will be less need for air conditioning as the employees stay cooler.
According to the newspaper, it was 36 degrees in Madrid, and 39 in Seville on Friday. Several European cities are experiencing record high temperatures this summer.
The Spanish government will initiate energy-saving measures on Monday, in line with several European countries trying to free themselves from Russian gas after the country’s war with Ukraine.
One of these measures will be that businesses that use air conditioning must keep their doors closed to reduce emissions of cold air.
–Spain is not the first country to think in this direction, according to the BBC:
Already in 2011, Japan introduced a campaign to get office workers to wear cooler clothes in the summer. Also during this year’s heat wave in Great Britain, the politicians in the House of Commons were allowed to throw away their suit jackets.
The newspaper wrote earlier this week about the German city of Hannover, which will save electricity by cutting the heating of water in public buildings. There will therefore only be cold showers if you want to visit a public swimming pool or a fitness centre.
The authorities in the city will also switch off indoor heating between April and September.
The extreme weather that has ravaged large parts of Europe this summer has hit Spain hard. According to Reuters, more than 500 deaths in the country can be linked to the heat. There have also been several forest fires.
Spanish Angel Martin Arjona narrowly escaped the flames as he tried to stop the fire from spreading:
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