Teresa Ribera, the third vice president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, has today admitted her annoyance at the “harshness” with which the energy company Repsol “treats the European green policy or the industrial policy decisions and Economic policy of the Executive”.
During an informative breakfast organized by Europa Press, Ribera also reproached the company, which has been especially belligerent with the Executive’s measures such as the extraordinary tax on energy companies, “they don’t like someone telling them that being technologically neutral is not “can be separated from a decarbonization process or that it is important to ensure employment and not the opposite.”
The minister did not want to comment on whether Repsol’s advertising can be considered, in her opinion, ‘greenwashing’, as Iberdrola has denounced in a court in Cantabria, although she recalled that in other countries such as the United Kingdom it has There has been a ruling against the energy company in this sense.
‘Green’ gives “value in the market”
What Ribera did value is that ‘green’ is beginning to be given “a value in the market.” “If we want society to trust what is said, in the messages that reach it, and not think that anything is worth it, it is important to have common rules that rule out the possibility of advertising by calling something for which It is not. And I think this is a good thing, because we need the trust of consumers,” he added in this regard.
Ribera acknowledged his surprise at the fact that this lawsuit was filed by “an electricity company and not a consumer association or an NGO.” “Whatever the motives or understanding of one company or another, I can’t go into, but I do think it indicates that perhaps there are companies that consider that green has value,” he said.
In this regard, he valued this positively as a confirmation that being ‘green’ and sustainable “has market value.” “For me that is excellent news. Because I am convinced that sustainable ‘green’ is market value, it is quality employment and secure employment, and it is economic and industrial returns for our country,” he said.
“It has to do it” to address this path to decarbonization and “guarantee the employment of its workers”
Furthermore, the third vice president of the Government considered that Repsol is in a “more complicated situation than other companies” as it is an oil company. “Since your business is working with fossil fuels, then the decarbonization process is a little more complicated than those companies whose business is precisely from the beginning solutions that do not use fossil fuels,” she said.
However, he estimated that the company led by Josu Jon Imaz knows that this process of change and transformation “has to be done” to address this path to decarbonization and “guarantee the employment of its workers.” “The worst thing a company could do is think that the employment of its workers is only viable without decarbonizing,” he said, adding that Repsol can “count on this Government” on the way to finding the formula to “remain viable, durable in “Time, generating resources, benefits and employment in an unstoppable process such as decarbonization.”
Confirms that the CNE will be in Ribera
On the other hand, Ribera has confirmed that the National Energy Commission (CNE), an entity that regulated energy systems until 2013 and which has now been recovered by the Government, will be in Madrid. He has thus positioned himself against the suspicions of those who doubt the independence of the organization and believe that it will be at the service of the Executive, and has assured that these misgivings “are part of the gossip.”
“Surely they must have thought about it when the Government of (José María) Aznar created it and when it lasted for twenty years,” added the minister, who wondered who could be surprised that, “like 25 other Member States of the European Union, something that has been here until the day before yesterday is recovered.”
Ribera has also ratified his intention for the law creating the CNE to be published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) before the end of the year, given the importance of “recovering this independent regulator specialized in energy”, which as novelty will have the function of facilitating decarbonization. He has also settled the debate about where the headquarters will be located, which “will be in Madrid, in the same place where it was before.”
Regarding its operation, the third vice president explained that the CNE will resume “practically the same functions” as the previous one, and has clarified that corporate operations will be analyzed both by the new entity and by Competition because “a very good part of the energy activities regulated children.”
