EU rules limit populists’ damage to climate action in Spain

***Please note: This article is part of a dossier on the impact of rising populism on climate efforts in Europe.***

Vox, Spain's leading populist, far-right party, doesn’t mince its words. It has called climate change "a scam", and described policies to combat its worst effects "a new religion with new commandments" designed to "tell us how we have to live”. The party says that environmentalist elites and Brussels bureaucrats would threaten the sovereignty and freedom of the Spanish people. These elites would use "a climate emergency as an excuse to destroy what little is left of our national industry”, said the party's leader Santiago Abascal. 

Vox's most recent electoral programme – for the general elections in July 2023 – includes proposals to repeal the climate change act, continue exploiting fossil fuels, reverse the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2035, pull Spain out of the Paris Agreement, and suspend the European Green Deal.

Vox has so far not been in a position to turn words into action at the national level. It has failed to become part of the country's central government, and remained isolated in its opposition to the climate change act in national parliament.

Things are different in city councils and some of Spain's 17 regions. Vox has entered several local and regional governments in the past two years, allowing it to implement some of its ideas. These range from cutting budgets earmarked for climate action, to suspending low-emission zones, and reversing plans for green taxes. While this causes some to sound the alarm bell, others say Vox's power to become a real threat to Spain's climate targets is limited. 

“Vox has a very simplistic reading of climate policies," says Toni Timoner Salvá, vice-president of the environmental, pro-market think tank Oikos. “Its position on this is to oppose everything, but I don't think it is a danger to achieving climate objectives. Vox knows that this issue does not give them many votes, and I think that sooner or later they will realise that it is not profitable for them to oppose it."

Right-wing populist parties have scored significant electoral successes in Europe in recent years, and populist parties opposing strong climate action are expected to fare well in two-thirds of EU member states at the European Parliament elections in June this year. The case of Spain holds interesting lessons for other countries because it shows how a party critical of ambitious climate action can impact efforts even without a hold on power at the national level.

Spain is divided into 17 sub-national regions, so-called 'comunidades autónomas'. Vox currently governs in coalition with the PP as a junior partner in five of these with a combined population of 12 million: Castilla y León, Comunidad Valenciana, Aragón, Murcia and Extremadura. In four of the five governments in which Vox participates, it has ministries directly or indirectly related to green or energy policies: in Castilla y León the industry and agriculture ministries; in Aragón and Valencia the agriculture ministries; and in Extremadura the ministries of forestry management and rural affairs.

Apart from the government of Castilla y León, which Vox joined in 2022, the rest of the governments were not formed until the last regional and autonomous elections in May 2023. That has left the party little time and opportunity to fundamentally change climate policies, but Vox managed to reduce regional budgets earmarked for climate action and promoting the ecological transition. In the Valencian Community, whose capital is Spain's third largest city in terms of economic importance and population, these funds have gone from 237 million euros to 148 million euros under the new PP-Vox government.

Paula Espinosa is a member of the Valencian parliament for the green party Compromís, which between 2015 and 2023 governed the community in coalition with the Socialist Party. Since Vox joined the regional government, Valencia's politics have been marked by "political inaction and the reversal of measures against climate change," Espinosa told Clean Energy Wire. The government stopped projects for new pedestrian areas and allowed urban development projects on the coast, which had previously been halted. "This is a step backwards in these times of drought and water stress," says Espinosa.

One of the issues Espinosa is most concerned about is forest fires, which are becoming more frequent in Spain due to climate change. The year 2022 was the second-worst on record in relation to land area burned in wildfires across the EU, with fires stretching from Portugal and Spain to Italy and Greece. Adapting to the increased risk of wildfires – including better prevention, warning and management of blazes – is crucial for a southern European country such as Spain.

Fire prevention and extinguishing is the responsibility of the regional ministry of Justice, chaired by Vox politician Elisa Núñez, for whom "talking about climate change is a lie". Espinosa says the ministry "has reduced the budget for fire prevention and extinction by 9 percent", which means several million euros less for municipalities and the hiring of firefighters.

On energy transition, the government has clearly stated "its intention to modify the Valencian climate change law," says Espinosa. The PP-Vox government already decided other measures, such as the abolition of green taxes on large commercial areas, industry and cars, which were set to come into force in 2025.

The existence of established climate legislation, both at national and European level, is a cause for cautious optimism for environmentalists. Paco Ramos, of the environmental NGO umbrella organisation Ecologistas en Acción, told Clean Energy Wire that "as long as the European framework does not change substantially, they won't be able to do much".

His colleague Luis González Reyes, researcher and activist of Ecologistas en Acción shares his view, highlighting a failed attempt by a PP-led government to  abolish the low emission zone in Spain's capital Madrid: "Their intention was to eliminate any restriction on cars, but they have had no choice but to soften those restrictions because there was a systematic failure to comply with the regulations." The activist says the same thing would happen at the state level. "They will try to break the rules as long as possible and, when sanctions come, they will look for mechanisms to comply, even if only partially." An example of this could be found in Alicante, where PP and Vox have retained the low emission zone, but removed fines for offenders.

In the government coalition agreements signed in autonomous regions such as Extremadura, Valencia or Castilla and León, PP and Vox said they would introduce more measures which could ultimately harm climate and biodiversity, such as the expansion of irrigation, a reduction of environmental controls on agricultural and livestock holdings, cutting limitations in protected areas, or the reversal of European policies that curb the use of pesticides or aggressive fishing practices. But González says that the governments will not be able to carry out a large part of their programme. "What we will see is going to be something less bad than what they announce in their speeches."

Oikos analyst Timoner highlights another aspect: money. "Europe's action limits you because it establishes frameworks, but fundamentally because there is aid and funds conditional on complying with policies," he says. "No matter how much Vox says it will not comply with certain things, it will have to do so because otherwise there will be consequences for the pockets of Spaniards."