The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, led by Mariano H. Zapata, held a meeting this Monday with various areas of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and technicians from the Biosphere Reserve, to finalize the draft of the proposal for Renewable Energy Acceleration Zones (ZAR) for the island.
This meeting, in which the Deputy Minister for the Fight against Climate Change and Ecological Transition, Julieta Schallenberg, participated, together with part of her technical team, served to present the document in detail, with the aim of being able to propose adjustments before its final approval.
The Deputy Minister explained that this action is part of the Ministry's commitment to "carry out an agile energy transition, but with all environmental guarantees" and with the active participation of territorial and social agents. "Lanzarote is a territory with extraordinary environmental sensitivity and recognized planning, and that is why we believe it is essential to have the contribution of the Biosphere Reserve in this final phase of the design of the ZAR," said Schallenberg.
The Deputy Minister stressed that the ZAR are a key tool to "simplify and streamline" the implementation of clean energy, including suitable spaces for it, but always from the perspective of respect for the environment, landscape and biodiversity. "We want Lanzarote to have the best possible conditions to promote renewable energy with sustainability and territorial planning criteria," so "this is a technical document that has been worked on intensively with the councils and is now in its final phase," added Schallenberg.
The President of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, present at this meeting together with the Councilor for Territorial Planning and Policy Jesús Machín, and the Councilor for the Environment Samuel Martín, pointed out that the Island Institution "is fully committed" to the implementation of renewable energy. "From the Cabildo we wanted this document to go through the Biosphere Reserve and once our Territorial Policy and Environment technicians give us the go-ahead, we want to sign this agreement as soon as possible," he said. "I congratulate the Government of the Canary Islands for addressing the demands of the island of Lanzarote to improve this document that will allow all sectors to zone for the implementation of renewable energy," he concluded.
The proposal has been prepared in coordination with the technical teams of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Island Council, and is added to the rest of the islands where "numerous meetings" have already been held for the validation of the future ZAR.
The Ministry wanted to emphasize that the participation of the Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote will be decisive to further reinforce the environmental coherence of this planning, and has made available to the island team all the technical data necessary to facilitate its analysis and possible contributions.
