11-05-2023, 08:34 PM
Noticias:
Fuerteventura airport will have to be reconfigured due to climate change.
The Canary archipelago is one of the areas that can suffer the most in the battle against climate change if measures are not taken urgently, at least that is what emerges from the Plan to Promote the Environment Adapts Coasts, which already warns that the flooding processes derived from the rise in sea level will affect 147 sandy areas, being the eastern and central islands the most affected. The first eliminated already has a name and surname: the beach of Alcalá, in Guía de Isora, Tenerife.
The Plan's report warns that the results of this study are devastating: "rising sea levels and temperatures, desertification, tropicalization and increased adverse Weather Events and associated respiratory and cardiovascular diseases."
Reconfiguration of Airports in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura
It is estimated that 10 per cent of the islands' resident population will have to be relocated to the interior, while major disruptions to public infrastructure are anticipated. The concern is total. Several ports and airports such as Lanzarote or Fuerteventura will have to be reconfigured.
Desalination plants and thermal power plants will have to be dismantled and several sections of highways and roads will be compromised. And large agricultural and industrial areas will also be affected. "The Canary Islands are going to be the trailer of what can happen to the planet if we do not win this fight." This is expressed by José Antonio Valbuena, counselor of Ecological Transition of the regional government, who demands more autonomy for the islands in energy matters in order to make immediate decisions, advances the newspaper El Confidencial.
The PSOE has included in its electoral program for 28-M the approval of an ecotax in the islands. The Socialists had already been in favor this legislature of the approval of the tax, as long as tourism recovered the pre-pandemic figures. And now, that threshold has been passed, they have included the measure.
The counselor Valvuena assures the newspaper El Confidencial that "we need that, in collaboration with the State, we take the reins in planning, development and energy programming", He complains of the scarce agility in certain regulatory changes and resolutions that the archipelago needs to overcome the effects of the climate emergency.
He gives as an example the delay in the approval of a tender to replace obsolete and polluting thermal power plants. "Also the lack of momentum to a large renewable energy storage pile in Tenerife, essential to advance in decarbonization, and calls for greater diligence in the procedures to implement the offshore wind already designed," he explains.
Blow to the economy
The blow to the economy, mainly due to the damage to tourism, is of enormous depth and an estimated loss of 11% of the GDP of the Canary Islands. An impact that joins the one that health will receive, since chronic diseases associated with climate change will increase, especially due to the increase in haze episodes. Which will also be more intense.
Fisheries will be seriously harmed
A new report developed by the Group on Earth and Atmospheric Observations (GOTA), predicts a rise in average temperatures in a range between one and three degrees, an increase in the number of tropical nights and a longer duration of extreme heat episodes.
Annual rainfall will decrease by around 30%, increasing the risk of desertification and large forest fires. And the so-called green islands – with the exception of La Palma – will undergo substantial changes with a loss of vegetation that will lead to more arid landscapes.
Fishing, agriculture, livestock, flora, fauna and the marine environment complete the equation of a very complicated horizon. Several scientific studies raise the effects in two temporal milestones: the horizon of the year 2050 and the end of the century. This is the first X-ray of this magnitude carried out in Spain. "We have made this diagnosis because our weaknesses are far superior to other territories," explains Valbuena. The findings of these projections cover all areas.
The importance of decarbonisation and the use of renewables
In the midst of this diagnosis, the Canary Islands have done their homework with the recent approval of their climate change law. With this text, at least within the framework of its competences, it aims to avoid fulfilling the forecasts with the inclusion of the necessary tools to be able to achieve the decarbonization of the islands in 2040, 10 years less than those set by Europe and Spain.
The regional plan establishes specific measures and obligations that concern public administrations and the private sector in order to reduce emissions by 90% and reach 92% of the final energy consumed through renewables in that border of 2040.
The archipelago has the natural conditions to achieve it thanks to the hours of sun and wind and the available technology, Valbuena insists on the need to accelerate the steps to avoid catastrophe. This progress is focused, above all, on a regulatory framework of its own, which the islands currently lack.
Fuerteventura airport will have to be reconfigured due to climate change.
The Canary archipelago is one of the areas that can suffer the most in the battle against climate change if measures are not taken urgently, at least that is what emerges from the Plan to Promote the Environment Adapts Coasts, which already warns that the flooding processes derived from the rise in sea level will affect 147 sandy areas, being the eastern and central islands the most affected. The first eliminated already has a name and surname: the beach of Alcalá, in Guía de Isora, Tenerife.
The Plan's report warns that the results of this study are devastating: "rising sea levels and temperatures, desertification, tropicalization and increased adverse Weather Events and associated respiratory and cardiovascular diseases."
Reconfiguration of Airports in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura
It is estimated that 10 per cent of the islands' resident population will have to be relocated to the interior, while major disruptions to public infrastructure are anticipated. The concern is total. Several ports and airports such as Lanzarote or Fuerteventura will have to be reconfigured.
Desalination plants and thermal power plants will have to be dismantled and several sections of highways and roads will be compromised. And large agricultural and industrial areas will also be affected. "The Canary Islands are going to be the trailer of what can happen to the planet if we do not win this fight." This is expressed by José Antonio Valbuena, counselor of Ecological Transition of the regional government, who demands more autonomy for the islands in energy matters in order to make immediate decisions, advances the newspaper El Confidencial.
The PSOE has included in its electoral program for 28-M the approval of an ecotax in the islands. The Socialists had already been in favor this legislature of the approval of the tax, as long as tourism recovered the pre-pandemic figures. And now, that threshold has been passed, they have included the measure.
The counselor Valvuena assures the newspaper El Confidencial that "we need that, in collaboration with the State, we take the reins in planning, development and energy programming", He complains of the scarce agility in certain regulatory changes and resolutions that the archipelago needs to overcome the effects of the climate emergency.
He gives as an example the delay in the approval of a tender to replace obsolete and polluting thermal power plants. "Also the lack of momentum to a large renewable energy storage pile in Tenerife, essential to advance in decarbonization, and calls for greater diligence in the procedures to implement the offshore wind already designed," he explains.
Blow to the economy
The blow to the economy, mainly due to the damage to tourism, is of enormous depth and an estimated loss of 11% of the GDP of the Canary Islands. An impact that joins the one that health will receive, since chronic diseases associated with climate change will increase, especially due to the increase in haze episodes. Which will also be more intense.
Fisheries will be seriously harmed
A new report developed by the Group on Earth and Atmospheric Observations (GOTA), predicts a rise in average temperatures in a range between one and three degrees, an increase in the number of tropical nights and a longer duration of extreme heat episodes.
Annual rainfall will decrease by around 30%, increasing the risk of desertification and large forest fires. And the so-called green islands – with the exception of La Palma – will undergo substantial changes with a loss of vegetation that will lead to more arid landscapes.
Fishing, agriculture, livestock, flora, fauna and the marine environment complete the equation of a very complicated horizon. Several scientific studies raise the effects in two temporal milestones: the horizon of the year 2050 and the end of the century. This is the first X-ray of this magnitude carried out in Spain. "We have made this diagnosis because our weaknesses are far superior to other territories," explains Valbuena. The findings of these projections cover all areas.
The importance of decarbonisation and the use of renewables
In the midst of this diagnosis, the Canary Islands have done their homework with the recent approval of their climate change law. With this text, at least within the framework of its competences, it aims to avoid fulfilling the forecasts with the inclusion of the necessary tools to be able to achieve the decarbonization of the islands in 2040, 10 years less than those set by Europe and Spain.
The regional plan establishes specific measures and obligations that concern public administrations and the private sector in order to reduce emissions by 90% and reach 92% of the final energy consumed through renewables in that border of 2040.
The archipelago has the natural conditions to achieve it thanks to the hours of sun and wind and the available technology, Valbuena insists on the need to accelerate the steps to avoid catastrophe. This progress is focused, above all, on a regulatory framework of its own, which the islands currently lack.