The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, led by Mariano Hernández Zapata (Partido Popular), and the Cabildo de Lanzarote have held the first meeting of the monitoring commission of the Renewable Acceleration Zones (ZAR) of the island, after eight months of conflicts between both institutions due to the lack of consensus with the island's maps where the door is opened to install renewables and which contemplates the installation of solar panel fields and wind turbines in more than 3,100 hectares of the island.
The Minister of Spatial Planning and Territorial Policy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Jesús Machín Tavío (CC), pointed out last September that the Department of Ecological Transition had committed "a blatant error" by publishing maps that would occupy 3.75% of the island's territory and indicated that only 0.23% would be needed to meet the decarbonization objectives.
The monitoring table had not been carried out until now because the island Executive had refused to name its spokespersons due to its discontent with the published maps.
This meeting takes place after the agreement reached by both institutions last March. This first meeting was attended by the Deputy Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Energy, Julieta Schallenberg, who defended that to modify the maps it was necessary to hold this monitoring table and by the Minister of Energy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, replacing the island councilor Samuel Martín, as well as the technical teams designated by both institutions.
At the table has not been the counselor of Territorial Policy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Jesús Machín Tavío (Coalición Canaria), the most critical voice of the island Executive with the maps published after the agreement reached between the two institutions.
This commission will allow to jointly address all aspects related to the ZARs of Lanzarote, with the aim of advancing in the island's decarbonization process from "institutional consensus and technical rigor". For the moment, the conclusions of the investigation have not been revealed.
A monitoring commission eight months after the publication of the maps
This meeting gives continuity to the encounter held last March between the counselor of Ecological Transition and Energy, Mariano Hernández Zapata and the president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, with their respective teams, and that tackled the conflicts between both institutions due to the lack of agreement with the published maps.
In that meeting, the need was established to create this technical and political space to review the aspects related to the ZARs and correct the detected errors.
