Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity. We have scientific data that shows us the reality of this man-made phenomenon, which will drastically alter our lives, the lives of millions of people and territories in the coming decades. If we continue as before, the average temperature at the end of the century will increase by about 3.4 ºC. The World Meteorological Organization ruled that 2016 was the warmest year since records began. As you know, the impacts associated with Climate Change are devastating; reduction of spaces dedicated to agriculture and access to drinking water, increase of extreme heat waves, torrential rains and cyclonic phenomena. This is confirmed by a report presented in January of this year by the European Environment Agency showing how Europe has entered a stage of extreme weather events; heat waves, floods, droughts, and storms, which will become increasingly intense throughout the continent. Another equally alarming fact is that the rise in sea level is associated with losses of coastal infrastructure in all the coasts of the world, disappearance of populated islands in the Indian and Pacific, which implies millions of climate refugees.
All these effects also take their toll on the community coffers. According to data handled by the European Environment Agency (EEA), extreme climate-related events have cost more than 400 billion euros in Europe since 1980. In Spain the figure rises to almost 1,000 million per year.
These data lead us to look with concern at the possible consequences that this phenomenon will have on our island and of course on the rest of the Canary Islands and their infrastructures.
The fight against Climate Change is everyone's responsibility. We must be aware and consistent that it is affecting us, that it is a reality that we cannot deny, much less hide, we only have to remember the bad grape harvest we had this past 2016.
But there is hope. Different cities on the planet are acquiring different commitments against Climate Change; Amsterdam wants to be disconnected from natural gas in 2050, Copenhagen, Toronto and France have implemented laws to promote green roofs, Norway will ban the sale of diesel and gasoline vehicles in 2025, Madrid, London, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Rome, Berlin and Brussels among others, promote from the administration, the replacement of public transport vehicles by electric vehicles and are cities where the fleet of electric taxis is progressively increasing.
From Lanzarote we have always been aware of environmental care, and we have applied it in our territory with the installation of present and future wind farms, rapid charging points for electric vehicles, improvements in energy efficiency in public buildings, subsidies for solar panels for hot water and self-consumption, and the launch of a pioneering initiative in Spain such as the Single Window for Renewable Energies.
And we have taken an important step in our fight; the constitution of the Canary Islands Observatory of Climate Change to analyze and promote the actions that are necessary in our land. I want to thank and congratulate the Government of the Canary Islands, its Minister and Deputy Minister of Environment, for this magnificent and necessary initiative. It was time for the Canary Islands to have an organism that allows us to combat with perspective a cycle that can be devastating, which is being.
This type of actions put us in motion and standing to take care of the house in which we live: our planet. We can only face this threat from the particular commitment of each of us, according to our responsibilities. Let's be aware, let's take care of our planet; it is our home, and we have no other.
By Ariagona González, Councilor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote
