"It's a historic mistake." With these words, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the European Commission's proposal to lift the total ban on the sale of combustion engine vehicles starting in 2035, thus weakening one of the key principles of the European Green Deal. "It's a historic mistake for Europe because competitiveness is guaranteed through sustainability, not by weakening our climate commitments," Sánchez stated this Wednesday during his speech at the presentation of the State Pact for the Climate Emergency in Madrid. Now, the proposal must be negotiated between the Council and the European Parliament for final adoption. In the Spanish government's opinion, the argument of the automotive industry's competitiveness, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used this Tuesday to defend the proposal, is not robust enough to justify reversing the progress toward the energy transition and the fight against climate change.

In a global context marked by the climate emergency and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Abertis has managed to reduce its direct emissions by 25% (Scope 1, which includes fuel combustion and the transport of its own fleet) and indirect emissions (Scope 2, which refers to greenhouse gases). This objective has been achieved in just five years and now, the company has set itself a new, even more ambitious challenge: to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. This is how the group specialized in infrastructure and mobility management successfully completes its first ESG Plan (in English, environmental, social and governance) 2022-2024.

Behind the flames of a forest fire there is not only the devastation of the land like that which has been suffered for days in different parts of the Iberian Peninsula, but also smoke clouds that can have health consequences and are even more toxic than other sources of pollution, such as traffic, according to a study by researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) revealed this summer.. While firefighting efforts are progressing favorably in Castile and León, aided by weather conditions, the fire continues to threaten Galicia's oldest forest and has already turned the peak of Peña Trevinca, which covers some 25,000 protected hectares, black. The wave of fires hitting the Iberian Peninsula this August has pushed the total annual carbon emissions from forest fires in the country to record levels, the highest since at least 2003. Breathing smoke from a fire is common among the elderly, pregnant women, children, and people with underlying respiratory illnesses, such as asthma, and heart conditions. However, anyone with prolonged exposure to this pollutant may experience symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, burning eyes, throat irritation, and runny nose. In severe cases, they may experience wheezing, chest pain, headaches, fatigue, and even a rapid heartbeat. For this reason, this Wednesday the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) recommended avoiding smoke exposure, avoiding outdoor physical activity, and maintaining good hydration to protect the respiratory tract even after the fires are extinguished, as suspended particles remain in the air.

The Committee of Experts on Climate Change (CECC) of the Generalitat proposes that Catalonia reduce CO2 emissions by 67%.₂ and other greenhouse gases until 2035 compared to 1990, the international reference year for measuring climate change. This was stated at the presentation, this Thursday in Barcelona, ​​of the Carbon budgets, which the group of experts must present to Parliament.

One of the main fears that until recently most car manufacturers in Europe had was the so-called CAFE regulation (clean air for Europe, or Clean Air for Europe), an anti-pollution plan that planned to reduce CO₂ emissions this year by 15% compared to 2020 levels. In other words, manufacturers had to face a maximum emissions limit of 93.6 grams of very high emissions this year in 2025.

The recovery from the covid-19 pandemic is once again driving up greenhouse gas emissions. The drop in CO₂ left by lockdown will remain a mere jolt, because the post-pandemic economic recovery plans are back on fossil fuels and moving us away from the change that science is calling for. The emissions rebound, in fact, puts the world on track to exceed the 1.5°C limit in 11 years. This is according to the latest analysis of global CO₂ emissions by the Global Carbon Project, presented on Thursday at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow.

Early morning agreement. European lawmakers agreed on Wednesday, after 5 a.m., the climate law that sets out commitments to reduce emissions by "at least" 55% by 2030, compared to 1990, and with the major milestone of making Europe the first emission-neutral continent by 2050.