Bravo to the current vice president of Ecological Transition!, who, with the extension of Almaraz, continues her amendment to the entire erroneous policy that collapsed with the blackout of April 28, 2025. Since then, rectifications have followed one another and, as happens in modern times, when they are carried out based on common sense and empirical evidence, they generate opposition due to the ideological closedness that exists in some. For example, the one that confuses the fight against climate change with the electrical transition and this with the closure of nuclear plants, in a double nonsense that we have seen a lot these weeks.
The unfulfilled Paris Agreement (2015) revealed two things necessary, simultaneously, to stop the growth of the average temperature of the planet: a global commitment by all countries and the progressive reduction of emissions of polluting gases and, especially, of CO₂, to achieve a net zero balance of greenhouse gases by mid-century. Everything else is instrumental in achieving these two objectives, in turn intermediate, in the fight against climate change.
Well, at this moment both commitments are being breached: not all countries are applying emissions reduction policies (in addition to Iran, Libya and Yemen, which did not sign, the US left in January of this year, China applies its own calendar and other developing countries do not comply, because developed countries do not fulfill their commitments to finance their transition either) nor, consequently, are global emissions being reduced (with China, the US and India as the largest emitters), despite the fact that the International Court of Justice defended that States have a legal obligation to protect humanity from the worst effects of climate change.
The EU has reduced emissions by 37% compared to 1990, still far from the committed reduction of 55% in 2030, although this objective seems achievable given the decoupling that is occurring between GDP growth and energy consumption. The most significant decrease in emissions occurred in the electricity sector thanks to “an 8% increase in electricity generated from renewable energy and a 5% increase in nuclear energy, together with a decrease in gas and coal,” according to the Commission in its report on EU Climate Action in 2025. Let's stick with the reference: Europe reduces emissions because it increases renewables and nuclear, which, remember, does not emit and is part of the clean energy package.
Spain, in its recent PNIEC (National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan), has raised the emissions reduction target to 32% by 2030, still insufficient to comply with Paris and very ambitious in view of the low reduction of 5.8% that we count in 2025 compared to 1990 (270 million tons of CO₂ equivalent compared to 286) according to the Sustainability Observatory.
By economic sectors, transportation is the big problem to be solved despite being one of the main emitters. The obsession with electrification of the previous person in charge did not go from saying to fact and the current one has also had to rectify this, opting for the technological neutrality that prevails in Europe and also supporting hydrogen and biofuels, although the commitment must be reinforced by including biomass if we want to reduce emissions. The other problem is that of diffuse sectors, which increase their emissions in the absence of effective measures by the Government. Only the electricity sector reduces emissions by increasing renewable generation in the national mix to exceed 50% at many times. However, since the blackout, emissions from the electricity sector have increased by 9% due to the greater generation with gas incorporated into the reinforced system launched, urgently, by Red Eléctrica: the purchase of gas from Russia has increased by 42%.
In view of the global data, therefore, one can only be proud of what has been done in the electricity sector, being aware that the blackout showed that the ceiling has been reached and that a more general rectification is necessary here as well, if we want to match the transition with the laws of physics. And the current person in charge is doing it, starting with the most obvious rectifications, pending for years due to the indifference of her predecessor: synchronous converters (more than 600 million to be installed in the network), which stabilize the voltage in the network; and batteries, whose regulation has been approved this year.
We can say that the first phase of the energy transition has been completed, although limited to the electricity sector and only generation. An electrical mix made up of 80% renewables, the current 20% nuclear and gas only as support is a desirable and achievable objective. Still, much remains to be done if, as the European Commission pursues, we are to double the rate of electrification of the economy. And we have to focus on promoting it in those sectors that are behind in this objective, such as transportation.
But also in the electricity sector we are entering another phase, which must be presided over by the concern to expand and improve the transportation and distribution networks, a true bottleneck of the system today, as well as long-term storage, which includes hydraulic pumping. In another rectification, now of the previous electrical planning, the Government has expanded by 18,000 million euros the necessary investment in transport networks until 2030. We await the rectification associated with the boost in pumping and the conditions imposed on data centers.
If the energy transition consists of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is difficult to be satisfied with what has been achieved in Spain as a consequence of this Government's policies. And not precisely because of the extension of the useful life of nuclear plants, the same ones that in Europe contribute to reducing emissions. In fact, we are increasing total consumption and, therefore, our external dependence on oil and gas products, contrary to the commitments of a real energy transition. More rectifications are essential.
