The deputy of Lanzarote and La Graciosa for Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-bc) in the Parliament of the Canary Islands and island president of the organization, Yoné Caraballo, has obtained the majority support of the groups present in the Chamber to carry out the first Network of Climate Shelters of the Canary Islands.
Climate Shelters are public spaces and facilities that ensure the protection of the population against heat waves that are occurring more frequently in our archipelago. These spaces would be conditioned to be around 22 degrees and have good accessibility, rest areas and water.
“The Canary Islands faces a particular challenge due to its geographical location. Heat waves and haze have increased in frequency and intensity during the last years, going between 2001 and 2010 from 57 days of heat waves to 116 days between 2011 and 2019”, comments Caraballo, who points to a worrying fact, “in 2023, the Canary Islands was the Autonomous Community with the highest mortality rate related to heat, with 563 deaths attributed directly to heat waves”.
This initiative is being carried out in other autonomous communities such as Catalonia or Andalusia, which have adapted existing public spaces such as libraries, civic centers, schools or parks to respond to the population during heat waves, providing them with a safe and comfortable environment, especially for vulnerable people.
Therefore, the Non-Law Proposal approved in Parliament urges the Government of the Canary Islands to collaborate with the City Councils and Cabildos in a Network of Climate Shelters, taking advantage of already built public spaces and facilities, initially in islands with greater risk such as the eastern islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which guarantee the protection of the population in heat episodes that involve the activation of level three Red of High Risk according to the threshold established by the Ministry of Health.
In addition, Yoné Caraballo has managed to get the Parliament to commit to declaring the Autonomous Community as “Vanguard Islands” so that the Canary Islands can be an example in adaptation to climate change and climate justice.
“Climate change is not the future, but the present. The priority is no longer to mitigate the effects, but to adapt in the safest way to the extreme weather changes that are taking place and will continue to intensify. It is a matter of public health”, says Yoné Caraballo.
“Recover Control”
The Canarist organization wants to invite the population of Lanzarote and social groups to participate this Friday 27th in the Recover Control conference, which will take place in the Maneje Sociocultural Center (Arrecife) from 5:00 p.m.
These conferences will aim to discuss and analyze the problem of public water in Lanzarote and the demographic challenge and its consequences. For this, Alejandro Sánchez, deputy of Más Madrid in the Assembly of Madrid and founding member of Equo, has been invited to participate; Toña Guardia, former councilor of the Board of Directors of Inalsa for the Neighborhood Associations of Lanzarote; Sonia Argano, expert in restoration of hydraulic infrastructures; and Luis Campos, spokesperson for the parliamentary group of NC-bc in the Parliament of the Canary Islands. This talk will be moderated by deputy Yoné Caraballo.