Fighting the climate emergency, protecting biodiversity, redefining production and consumption models and building fairer societies are priority issues that remain pending as the Spanish Presidency comes to an end.
Together with several organisations, La Coordinadora issued a public statement and a set of recommendations highlighting the urgency of implementing measures that put people and planet at the centre. This statement was presented at the start of the Spanish Presidency to Teresa Ribera, Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and Zakia Khattabi, Belgian Minister for Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Pact, as a call for action for the Spanish Presidency.
We can no longer postpone political and economic decisions that contribute to achieving climate neutrality and a social and solidarity-based economy. “Addressing this transition is only possible if it is done from a policy coherence approach, assuming the close correlation between domestic policies, in this case European policies, and their impact on the rest of the world”, highlights José Luis Postigo, member of the Governing Board of La Coordinadora.
No one can any longer question that the countries that contribute the least to the climate emergency are, for the most part, those most affected by its consequences. Or that there is a global water crisis and an unequal and unsustainable management of natural resources. There is an urgent need to review the European consumption model and the frameworks that define trade agreements with other regions, particularly with the Global South.
Beyond commercial interests or corporate profits, it is time to redefine the current model and promote a more sustainable and fairer European agenda that can be transferred to the rest of the world. It should be stressed that no just transition is possible if it is not approached from a feminist and decolonial perspective that takes into account the differential and gender impacts of public policies.
In this regard, some of the measures we have proposed to the Spanish Presidency are: adopting a Due Diligence Directive that guarantees respect for the environment and human rights by all companies without exception and throughout the world; complying with the commitments set out in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and promoting new models of production and consumption compatible with the functioning of the ecological systems that sustain life.
Photo: Santi Escribano | Amycos. Amazonas.