Aznar’s plea over energy

17 February 2004

MADRID – Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar said Tuesday Spaniards had an “unavoidable challenge” to use energy responsibly.
 
Aznar said expanding the economy and saving energy had to go
together and Spaniards should contribute to take care of the environment.

The prime minister made his comments Tuesday at the launch of a new body called the Diversification and Saving of Energy Institute.

Aznar said that Spain is developing more renewable energy. As an example he said that in 1995 wind energy was generating 150 gigabytes of energy per hour and now it produced 10,000.

This meant that Spain was the third biggest producer in the world after Germany and the United States.

Solar energy generation had also increased from only 12 gigabytes per hour in 1993 but by  2002 it produced  31. Aznar claimed this made  Spain one of the biggest generators of renewable energy.

“We are on a world scale in the production of solar panels and our industry is at the head in terms of the production of biocarbonates to substitute for combustible fossil fuels,” said Aznar.

However, Aznar said that Spain could go further. “There are places  where we aspire to be,” he said.

One measure will be the Plan to Develop Renewable Energy, which is designed to reduce demand on outside sources of energy and guarantee the country’s own supply.

“We are a country committed to the development of sustainable energy and with improving the quality of life and we know that consuming energy responsibly is an unavoidable challenge” he said.
 
He rejected the idea that developing the economy and saving the environment were incompatible.

On the contrary, Aznar said, the “big challenge” was to reduce the emission of contaminants and increase competitiveness, job-creation and well-being.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news