“The Tías Town Council, governed by PSOE, Lanzarote Avanza (LAVA) and Lanzarote en Pie-Sí Podemos, is the first in Lanzarote to have an Action Plan for Climate and Sustainable Energy. Our goal is to change and reduce the footprint we leave on the planet. The Action Plan that we present today establishes priorities. And for us, the priorities are the people, who are connected to the climate and the planet. Therefore, we have to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030.”
The mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz, concluded his speech this Friday to present the Action Plan for Climate and Energy of Tías. He announced that the City Council has 37 projects in the area of energy efficiency, circular economy, mobility and water. Most have a license, some have financing and others are pending to achieve it, adding a total planned investment of 59 million euros. The Action Plan proposes 61 mitigation actions and some of them are already being implemented.
Cruz was accompanied by the Councilor for the Environment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ariagona González, the second deputy mayor, Nicolás Saavedra, the Councilor for the Environment, Carmen Gloria Rodríguez, the technical advisor of the Cabildo on climate change, Ezequiel Navío, and the technician of the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC) and one of the drafters of the plan, Marcos Suárez.
All highlighted the great importance of the commitment of administrations, companies, groups and individuals in the fight for the climate and for a safer, more sustainable and affordable non-polluting energy. Carmen Gloria Rodríguez stressed that the City Council, with this Action Plan, “marks a milestone in the decarbonization” necessary for the island and the planet.
Ariagona González pointed out that the process carried out by the Tías City Council in this matter “is a benchmark for Lanzarote” and announced that the Cabildo of Lanzarote will join the Covenant of Mayors in January 2022 as a coordinating entity, “supporting and advising the technical staff of the adhering municipalities”.
Ezequiel Navío recalled that the COP26 Climate Summit ends today in Glasgow “without binding commitments” and provided data on the seriousness of global warming with the increase in temperatures and its impacts, especially in island territories such as the Canary Islands.
Marcos Suárez detailed the content of the Action Plan, which establishes that the first focus of emissions in the municipality comes from the residential sector and the transport sector, which together account for 62.9% of emissions in the municipality. Therefore, he explained, although the City Council has managed to reduce its emissions mainly by replacing public lighting with more efficient LED lenses, “residents can also act with the use of photovoltaic panels or electric vehicles, for example”

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The document, which includes and takes into account the results of consultations with citizens through a survey available on the City Council's website, proposes a mitigation plan with 61 actions to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030.
These actions range from the creation of a municipal composting service, which has already begun to be processed together with the collection of pruning remains to obtain biomass; the installation of solar photovoltaic energy in municipal facilities, which is in process; the promotion of recharging points for supplying electric vehicles or the creation of a municipal bicycle network.
The mitigation plan proposes to act in different sectors: Buildings, Transport, Energy, Water, Waste, Territorial planning, Agriculture and forestry, Environment and biodiversity, Tourism, Health, Civil Protection and Emergencies. An adaptation plan is also established with structural actions to prevent the rise in sea level with tree plantations that act as a sink or the restoration of habitats, actions that have not yet begun.