So far in 2024, photovoltaics have avoided the emission of 6.4 million tons of CO2 in Spain

The Spanish Photovoltaic Union, the majority sector association of solar energy in Spain, commemorates one more year the International Environment Day by joining the call to action made by the United Nations Organization so that citizens, public institutions and companies work in a coordinated manner in the fight against the climate emergency.

On this occasion, the UN makes a public call to conserve ecosystems and biodiversity around the world, in danger due to the devastating effects of the climate crisis. To this end, the international organization places at the center of its action the definitive push for an energy transition that it considers “one of the main weapons to preserve the Environment and biodiversity.”

The data from the Spanish Photovoltaic Union demonstrate, once again, that solar energy is, due to its nature as a substitute for fossil fuels, an essential technology in the fight against the climate emergency. The following figures demonstrate this:

-In 2023, solar energy avoided 17.3 Million Tons of CO2, equivalent between self-consumption and soil plants, due to its nature as a replacement for fossil fuels.

-So far in 2024, solar energy has avoided, in soil plants alone, 6.4 million tons of CO2.

• In 2023, we avoid a monthly average of 1.4 million tons of CO2 thanks to solar energy.

“In addition to the nature of solar energy as a substitute for fossil fuels, if ground-based solar plants are carried out properly, their contribution to biodiversity will not be limited only to the hydrocarbon substitution effect. “Solar projects are capable of generating a positive contribution to the space they occupy: in this ecosystem, human activity will be very reduced for 30 years, achieving a renaturalization of the land, as numerous scientific studies have stated.” José Donoso in the context of this day.

Once again, UNEF wants to take advantage of this June 5, World Environment Day, to remember that a year of delay in the implementation of measures is a year of CO2 emissions that could have been avoided, it is a period of time to gain in the race against the clock to reduce the effects of the climate emergency.

“We are seeing how in some Autonomous Communities new taxes and moratoriums on solar energy are being established. This, in addition to a loss of economic competitiveness for these regions and for our country, means opening the doors to the devastating effects of the climate emergency for both citizens and biodiversity,” Donoso reiterated.

UNEF General Assembly and I edition of the Creators of the Future award

In the context of World Environment Day, UNEF organizes its General Assembly of Members, the event in which each year the more than 800 associated companies exercise their right to democratic participation in the sectoral association.

In addition, this year for the first time and at the end of the UNEF General Assembly, the sector association organizes the 1st edition of the Future Creators Awards, inspired by Peter Drucker’s phrase, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Sara Aagesen, Secretary of State for Energy, Manuel Larrasa, General Director of Energy of the Government of Andalusia, Olga García, former Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of Extremadura, Juan Ávila, Mayor of Carmona and National Senator and Rosa Melchor, Mayor from Alcazar de San Juan, will be the winners in this first edition.