Spain, tourism and climate change | Economy | '
Nicholas Stern has no doubt: "If the temperature rises above the limits we set in the Paris Agreement, then there is a clear risk that Spain will turn into a Saharan desert," said the British economist, who was already in 2006 his "Stern Report" on the consequences of climate change, in the spring at a conference in San Sebastian.
While climate activist Greta Thunberg also shakes up Spanish youth, many wonder if Spanish politics has understood the importance of renewable energy and environmental protection for the country.
Trying to cross the strait of Gibraltar every year thousands of migrants from Western Sahara risk their lives because of the heat and lack of rain that are destroying their future.
This could soon happen to Andalusia, where most of the refugees arrive when they survive the journey across the sea. The World Bank expects 80 million Africans to emigrate to North or Europe in the coming years due to climate change. Because of its location and history, Spain is a focal point for many of these refugees.
Spain wants to become green world power
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently sat in Malta's Mediterranean Med7 meeting to implement an investment plan for Africa and a separate investment framework for Morocco. He also said Spain needed to be a leader in climate change in Europe. Because the change in temperatures, winds and seasons already has an impact on the country's most stable source of income: tourism.
Business with the tourists still secures most of the jobs in Spain, which traditionally suffers from high structural unemployment. The industry needs to be nurtured. Sánchez was there when Stern in March in San Sebastian at the Climate Change Congress "Change the Change" called for more speed and seriousness in the implementation of the climate goals. "That must be the central pillar of the EU strategy", also demanded the Spanish Prime Minister, who wants to profile himself as a spokesman for Southern Europe in this area.
Spain produces solar power cheaper than Germany. Power plant of Gamasolar near Sevilla.
He wants to place his Minister for the Environment and Energy, Teresa Ribera, at Post Poker in Brussels as Vice-President of the Commission or at least as Head of Department: "With the abolition of the tax on self-installed solar systems, she has given the go-ahead for a new energy policy in Spain", says Luis Mereno, publisher of the magazine "Energías Renovables".
He considers the trained lawyer to be a particularly competent minister in the cabinet of Sánchez. Ten years ago, as State Secretary under José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, she understood that Spain's natural path was solar energy, but at that time the panels were still too expensive.
Goal: pioneering climate protection
Currently, Spain imports gas and oil annually for 40 billion euros, mainly from Algeria and Saudi Arabia. The money could save the country if it would put more solar energy with its many unused areas and its 3000 hours of sunshine a year, says the economist José Carlos Díez of the Universidad de Alcalá near Madrid. "We produce one megawatt of solar energy for 30 euros, in Germany and France it costs 40 euros and in the United Kingdom 60", says Díez.
Energy costs are also important for the tourism industry, which is one of the country's largest energy consumers, accounting for 15 percent of gross domestic product. For this reason, it is increasingly being criticized by climate protectionists, who are attacking the aviation and cruise industry in particular.
The high water consumption of hotels and golf courses has been criticized for years. There is also a problem with the efficient treatment of water. In vacationer strongholds such as Mallorca, the Canary Islands or Benidorm water from the tap still needs to be filtered. The problem with the approximately 750 Spanish desalination plants is that they consume a lot of energy and usually pump the salt back into the sea and thus also change the underwater life off the coasts.
In the criticism: Cruise ships in the port of Palma in Mallorca.
This technique, used in Spain since 1964, was an important prerequisite for the development of mass tourism. Today, Spain is the country that desalinates the most water after Saudi Arabia, the United States and the United Arab Emirates, according to data from the industry association AEDyR. The water is used for agriculture and the many golf courses and green areas that exist even in the dry south.
Spain's sea level problem
Spain is not only a tourism power, but also one of the major exporters of agricultural products worldwide. The farmers also offer a lot of attack surface for climate protectors. "They waste a lot of water, use a lot of pesticides and destroy the soil due to improper cultivation," says Rafael Álvarez, the agricultural consultant and tech entrepreneur living in Madrid.
For Spain, rising sea levels is one of the biggest problems, says Álvarez. He is convinced that many beaches and fields will be flooded in the coming years. Erosion is already a problem in the north of the country. Overall, the 5,978-kilometer-long coastal strip, where at least 90 percent of tourists spend their holidays, is narrower.
The research director of the Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental (IH) in Cantabria, Íñigo Losada, warns of the consequences for holiday home owners and hotel chains. As coral reefs disappear, places become less interesting for diving tourists, according to Losada. At the same time, rising water levels could flood coastal areas such as Cancún.
With Melià, Barceló, Iberostar and Riu, Spain has important tourism companies around the world that are already planning for emergencies. So Melià has already learned how the hotels can be insured there. This should also do German holiday home owners in Spain, says Losada. "I do not know if we can stop this development." He believes that even now a relocation would have to take place in some places in Spain. But nobody wants to talk about that, says real estate lawyer Tim Wirth, who works in Mallorca. "That would otherwise cause a panic."
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