Teresa Ribera says that without eliminating fossil fuels "climate security is not possible"

Considers that banks should stop financing fossil energy

BARCELONA, 3 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has stated that "without a gradual elimination of fossil fuels, climate security is not possible."

In an interview in 'La Vanguardia' collected this Sunday by Europa Press, he pointed out that if the decisions made at the UN Climate Summit (COP28) - which is held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) until the 12th December-- "they are consistent, the pace of decarbonization will accelerate, and if they are weak it will make people curb their investment appetite."

According to her, it is not only about reaching an agreement to triple renewable energies by 2030 and multiplying energy efficiency by two, but it is also necessary to "give clear signals" about how fossil fuels will be progressively left behind.

When asked if China resists Europe's proposal to agree that the maximum emissions peak will occur in 2025, he responded that for now they have not managed to get this expression to appear in the text of the draft agreements.

Ribera has considered that banks should stop financing fossil energy: "The first step is to differentiate the financial cost of one operation or another, considering that this is a higher risk activity and therefore has a higher cost of capital."

Regarding the agreement proposed by the European Union (EU) to triple renewable energy in 2023, it has analyzed that to do so it is first necessary to "fit all the instruments", such as financial ones, and choose how, where and under what conditions generates that renewable energy.

Asked if she believes that the objective of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan of achieving 81% of electricity from renewable sources in 2023 will be met, she responded that this is her intention, "which does not mean that it will be easy." .

"We have tried to find the maximum ambition within what we are currently capable of explaining how we can achieve it," he added.

The minister has pointed out that industrial activity is recovering after Covid-19 and is doing so more efficiently, but there is a "stagnation in emission reductions in mobility."

Regarding the refusal of some municipalities to comply with the legal obligation to implement low-emission urban areas, he stated that it is "enormously harmful and irresponsible that where progress has been made, there is going back."