Spanish PM Zapatero places faith in green economy

Spain currently has over four million people out of work, but is also a European leader in green technology with only Germany, for example, producing more electricity from wind power than Spain.

The Spanish prime minister believes this is the path his country should follow to help climb out of the economic crisis.

"We estimate that if we group them all together then sustainable industries, sustainable transport, sustainable education and eco-industries have the potential to create around a million jobs in the economy of the sustainable environment in the next decade," said Zapatero.

He was speaking in a meeting with a industrialists, including representatives of the most important companies from Spain, such as Iberdrola, Telefonica and oil producers Repsol.

"The green economy represents a great potential to generate employment in the future and also to help with technological advances and to make economies more competitive," added Zapatero in declarations emitted on Spanish television network RTVE.

Spain aims to double the amount of freight that travels by rail in the next 10 years, while the country also aims to have 250,000 electrically powered cars on its roads by 2015.

Zapatero also highlighted Spain’s dedication to renewable energy, adding that last Tuesday it set a new record of having 70 percent of its energy needs being supplied by "clean" sources, 40 percent of which was wind energy.