The regional president conveys his commitment to reduce them “to zero” and maintains that “in 2050 we must achieve climate neutrality”
The president of the Community, Fernando López Miras, announced this Saturday that the regional administration “has advanced eight years” and already meets the objective of reducing or offsetting carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 26% in 2030. This goal , aligned with the commitments assumed by the European Union, has been included since the end of 2019 in the Regional Strategy for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change.
López Miras participated this Saturday together with representatives of the business and social sphere of the Region in an act of planting trees of different varieties in El Valle Perdido (Murcia), on the occasion of the World Day for the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Emissions. The president of the Croem employers association, José María Albarracín, was also present.
The leader of the regional Executive stressed that “our commitment is to go beyond that objective already met, until we achieve a zero emissions Administration.” In addition, he affirmed that the business sector “is also a fundamental piece on this path” and celebrated that “there is increasing awareness that the future has to be green.”
Faced with the decrease in its emissions, the regional Administration started from the calculation of its carbon footprint. Subsequently, measures were applied “that have borne fruit,” said the president, such as the renewal of vehicles with less polluting models; the reduction of the consumption of fossil fuels both in vehicles and in buildings as well as the generation of electricity with solar panels.
The main departments of the Autonomous Community on which this reduction and compensation have been based are the Entity for Sanitation and Purification of Residual Waters of the Region (Esamur), thanks to a better use of biogas, photovoltaic installations and the treatment of sewage sludge; the Regional Waste Consortium, thanks to its management in the recovery and recovery of materials such as plastic and metal, and the Murcian Health Service, which has improved its energy consumption through its Comprehensive Plan for Ecological Transition 2021 -2030.
“Climate neutrality”
“We are aware that the European Union is working to increase the emission reduction threshold from 26 to 37.7%, and by 2050 we must achieve climate neutrality,” said López Miras, who stressed that “although today we celebrate having reached this milestone environment in the Region of Murcia, it is just one more step in our roadmap».
The regional official recalled that, recently, the Ministry of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and the Environment launched an initiative aimed at the business sector to advance decarbonisation and fight against climate change. Thus, each company can calculate its carbon footprint thanks to the voluntary agreement on business climate neutrality, and can offset it through the reforestation of public forests in the Region of Murcia.
This route, to which the first companies have already joined, allows them to know exactly the number of trees per year that they would have to plant to compensate for said footprint. López Miras assured that “increasing the ecological capital of the Region of Murcia is our goal”, and facing it, “there is no other way than environmental education, training and the dissemination of natural values”.
In this sense, he valued “the extraordinary natural wealth and biological diversity” of the Region, and stated that “we can boast of having a great natural wealth and incomparable ecological biodiversity with seven regional parks, a nature reserve, four natural monuments , or 98 wetlands, unique places that we all must protect and conserve”.