Among some of the consequences of this phenomenon, there could be losses greater than 11% of the GDP of the Canary Islands. The regional government anticipates that the Archipelago will have the Climate Change Law in November
Over the next century, the erosive processes that could occur on the coasts of the Canary Archipelago due to climate change could affect the 11% of the GDP of this region, which would cause irreversible economic effects and a progressive impoverishment of the population of the Islands. . The rise in sea level, a direct consequence of the melting of the poles, would put some 4,500 million euros per year at risk, a figure that could worsen if port infrastructures are considered.
To this situation we must add the increase in temperatures, which are expected to rise between three and 4.5 degrees, a figure well above the limit set at the 2015 Paris summit, where the objective of placing the inevitable increase between 1.5 and two degrees. According to Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, this will mean that in 2050 at least 20% of the energy produced will be invested in order to cool spaces, which comes hand in hand with health problems and GDP losses that affect many countries on a global scale.
Beyond the economy, experts are especially concerned about the increase in extreme heat, which in 2019 alone caused some 360,000 people to lose their lives, according to a study carried out in nine countries. Its condition in human beings also affects financial stability, since the aforementioned study explains that the United States saw around 100 billion dollars compromised due to the reduction in productivity generated by this phenomenon in 2020.
Towards the Canary Islands Climate Change Law. Taking these factors and other additions into account - phenomena such as torrential rains are endangering the heritage of the Islands -, the regional government began to draft the Canary Islands Climate Change Law in 2019, which is expected to come into force in November of this year . This was announced during the VI Forum on Self-Consumption and Sustainability of the Atlantic by the Deputy Minister for the Fight for Climate Change and Ecological Transition, Miguel Ángel Pérez, clarifying that the energy model that the Canarian Executive is committed to will provide “legal certainty” until 2040.
The problem of climate change in the Canary Islands is being addressed this week at the International Forum on Science, Communication and Sustainable Development, held at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where this conclusion was reached at its inauguration: scientists, politicians and citizens they must speak the same language to reach a solution. It is the planet and its survival that is at stake.
