Pedro Sánchez says country’s deadly August wildfires show society needs to mobilise and take immediate action
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced a 10-point plan to prepare the country for the climate emergency, warning: “If we don’t want to bequeath our children a Spain that’s grey from fire and flames, or a Spain that’s brown from floods, then we need a Spain that’s greener.”
Sánchez said August’s heatwave-fuelled wildfires – which killed four people, burned through an area six times the size of Ibiza and required “the biggest human and technical deployment” ever seen in Spain – showed that immediate action must be taken to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.
He said waiting any longer would be dangerous and expensive, and he criticised those who deny the realities of global heating in Spain. Over the past five years, he said, the climate emergency had caused more than 20,000 deaths and cost the public purse €32bn (£28bn) in material losses.
“We need to mobilise as a society against climate change, which is a common enemy that lies beyond ideologies,” he said. “Climate change kills. It kills. And that’s why we have to be aware of everything it represents in terms of insecurity and in terms of the risks it poses to our lives.
