SCIENCE ON STAGE
Once science comes into play, interested readers will find a series of experimental approaches ranging from repairing coral reefs bleaching, resorting to technologies applied in the plant kingdom to the exploration of the cooperation potential between polyps and microbiome to overcome the risks of coral reefs becoming skeletons without any hope of survival. The restauration processes are slow and expensive and the processes of cooperation related to the metabolic processes of nitrogen and oxygen by the intermediation of bacteria may attain partial solutions, in particular avoiding the losses of tissue and protecting against some diseases, but they don´t seem to contribute to a general cure.
Based on previous analytical analyses, it might be postulated that the process of research aimed at saving coral reefs responds to the profile of an evolutionary story which will provide a theoretical and experimental framework for understanding and extending further analyses on this and related topics. This assumption is supported on four arguments: the survival of coral reefs is the main common target; there is agreement to research the origin of the problem, which points to profound environmental alterations of the natural living site of corals; cooperation and hybridisation between polyps and microbiome are essential pillars for a satisfactory life cycle of coral reefs; experiments on the high seas are fundamental to advance regardless of the common target. Raquel Peixoto strongly supports this approach.
It is precisely this line of work that has raised ethical concerns in relation to the risks of using probiotics in the natural sea habitat. This issue is dealt with in the last part of the article as was mentioned in the original English title. These ideas (Muñoz, 2008; Muñoz van den Eynde & Muñoz, 2019; Muñoz van den Eynde, Rey Rocha & Muñoz Ruiz, 2021) led to the proposal of a consequentialist ethical setting based on values, responsibility being a critical one for the current dilemma. Warning, this scheme is very far from any presumptuous utilitarianism.
For us, evolution is linked to the concept of “significant social environment” (Muñoz, 2015) that embraces three elements: nature (living beings plus environment), culture (including science) and ethics.
policies, regulations and laws aligned with the environmental objectives subscribed to by the European Union within the framework of these international agreements and established in the Union’s policies and recommendations.
The laws on climate change set the legislative discourse in this area and establish a regulatory framework to regulate actions, mainly in relation to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and consequently the mitigation of their consequences.
FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION AT DIFFERENT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LEVELS. THE CASE OF SPAIN The interaction of the competencies at different administrative and geographical levels can be perceived insofar as the laws respond to countries’ compliance with their international commitments against climate change. In Spain, together with the Spanish Government’s Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition33, several autonomous communities have already drafted or are working on their own climate legislation (Regueira, 2021). The most advanced of them, the Valencian Community, has recently approved the preliminary draft of the Valencian Law on Climate Change and Ecological Transition34.
This chapter is not intended to add to the existing analyses, signed by sufficiently qualified experts, of the various laws that have been adopted or are in the process of being drafted or processed. Nor to carry out a comparative analysis of them. Rather, its aim is to consider the possibilities that these regulatory frameworks provide to mitigate and combat climate change. Instead of climate change, it would be more appropriate to say against environmental degradation, which constitutes what has been identified as an environmental pandemic (Rey Rocha & Muñoz, 2021a, b), an environmental disease that affects the entire planet and is, therefore, pandemic.
A reading of the above referred legislative texts makes it possible to identify various areas and opportunities for action by the different administrations. One example is the approval of incentives for the introduction of renewable energies and the promotion of self-consumption. Coordinated action is exemplified in the aspects that concern cities. The national law establishes that urban planning must take climate change into account and that all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants -as well as those with more than 20,000 inhabitants whose air quality is not good- must include the approval of low-emission zones -linked to their sustainable mobility plans in the case of the former- which can only be reversed with a favourable report from the regional government.
Climate change must also be taken into account in hydrological planning in a politically decentralised State such as Spain, in which “the ownership of administrative competencies in water matters is conditioned by the extension and territorial nature of the water basins” (Fanlo Loras, 2010) and whose competencies are distributed, in different ways, between the Central Administration and the
33 Ley 7/2021, de 20 de mayo, de cambio climático y transición energética [Law 7/2021. On climate change and energy transition. 2021, May 20].
Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), 121 (May 21), 62009-62052.
34 Anteproyecto de Ley del Cambio Climático y Transición Ecológica de la Comunitat Valenciana [Preliminary draft Law on Climate Change and Ecological Transition of the Valencian Region].
Autonomous Communities (Gobierno de España. Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, 2021).
The laws also establish areas of action for the private sector, although, pending the development of the law, these do not always go beyond the merely administrative and bureaucratic sphere. This is the case of the duty that the Spanish law imposes on large companies, financial institutions and insurance companies to “prepare annual reports on the risks to their activity arising from the transition to a sustainable economy and the measures adopted to address these risks”. The same bureaucratic requirement is established for public sector institutions in sectors such as finance and energy. Thus, the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores) or the General Directorate of Insurance and Pensions Funds (Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones) “will have to submit every two years a joint report on the degree of alignment of the financial sector with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the EU, as well as an assessment of risks for the system”. State-owned electricity and gas system operators will have to do something similar, as will the Logistic Company of Hydrocarbons (Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos).
On the other hand, citizen action has given ample proof of its capacity for action in the fight against climate change and in defence of the environment, based both on traditional modes of participation and on the capabilities offered by information technologies, particularly social media. Citizen action on environmental issues is characterised, as in many other cases, by anticipating a political and legislative reaction. But individual actions and social movements to preserve the environment, however necessary and effective, are not enough. As Naomi Klein points out (González Harbour, 2021), we need international and national strategies, enforceable laws and government support;
we need “governments that clearly present a plan to the population” and say, ‘This is not just up to you, it does not depend on you being perfect; this is what we are going to do as a society to change, and we are going to give you these supports”. It remains to be seen to what extent the laws on climate change or environmental laws, which have been widely criticised by different agents and social sectors for their lack of ambition and the delay in their drafting, processing and approval, have any capacity and usefulness in driving, supporting or coordinating citizen initiatives. For instance, the Spanish law establishes the creation of “a committee of climate change experts” to evaluate and make recommendations on policies and measures for the transition. Its members will prepare an annual report that will be “sent to the Congress of Deputies and submitted for debate”. In addition, the Government will create a “citizens' assembly on climate change", which will seek to encourage the participation of society in the fight against global warming.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND TRANSITION: ENERGY OR ECOLOGICAL?
The different laws here referred coincide in their focus, expressed in the title, on climate change.
With the exception of the Asturian law -known as the Environmental Quality Law- all of them refer to climate change in their titles. But they differ in their conceptualisation of transition, focused on energy in all of them, except in that of the Valencian Community, which at least in its initial wording is committed to an ecological transition. A priori, this gives the Valencian law a more generic
approach than can be assumed for the others, as it does not focus solely on energy transition.
However, the distinction between both energy and ecological transition is not always clear in its text, and even in the definitions section of Annex I, energy transition is not defined -perhaps because it is considered obvious- and the definition of ecological transition focuses on energy aspects - decarbonisation, reduction in the use of fossil fuels, and their replacement by alternative renewable energy sources-. It, therefore, ignores other aspects that should undoubtedly be considered in an eventual transition described as ecological, such as waste reduction and management or the fight against biodiversity loss. The ambiguity about the concepts of ecological and energy transition is evident throughout the articles of the Valencian law, which associates the ecological transition with a change not only in the energy model but goes further to talk about lifestyle and the social, economic and environmental model. The draft law marks its theoretical framework and scope of action, within the context of a green transition, in article 143, in which point 2 identifies, along with actions targeting energy, others in terms of efficiency and water saving, biodiversity conservation, reduction of impacts on health and on animal and plant health, the protection of the population against the increased risk of extreme weather events, forest management, research, innovation and education on climate change, and the transformation of the agro-industrial model and environmental and ecosystem services.
In short, the draft law of the Valencian Community implicitly recognises the magnitude of the problem, which, as previously argued, goes beyond the merely climatic sphere, since it is an environmental emergency or pandemic, which requires a cross-cutting approach, within the framework of proposals for an ambitious transition, that should be labelled ecological rather than using the more restrictive and limited term, energy.
A more explicit recognition, from the title itself, of the environmental and not only climatic magnitude of the complex problem being legislated on would provide the legislative texts with a more marked pedagogical character in this sense, by transmitting to society the magnitude of the challenge facing humankind, which various authors, such as Moises Naim, consider, together with the covid-19 pandemic, the two most important problems facing humankind in the 21st century35. The Spanish national law also provides for measures to protect biodiversity and its habitats from climate change and the preparation of basic guidelines for the adaptation of Spanish natural ecosystems and wild species to climate change. It also requires the government to incorporate measures to reduce the vulnerability of agricultural land, forests and woodlands to climate change, including the preparation of a vulnerability map.
SCIENCE AND R&D IN LEGISLATIVE DISCOURSE
Science and scientific research have a place in the laws on climate change and energy/ecological transition. Both laws mentioned here include an argumentation, in their respective preambles or
35 The international commentator Moises Naim replied to Angels Barceló on Cadena SER radio station that 9/11 was a great problem (geopolitical, we would add) for the 21st century but that there were already two more important problems: climate change and the pandemic, which by the way is related to climate change, we add again.
explanatory statements, in which the scientific evidence and the scientific-technical reports of the relevant international organisations on the subject, such as the conclusions of the scientific community contained in the special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), are included.
Likewise, the Spanish law, in a declaration of intentions, links the fight against climate change and the energy transition to R&D. But this relationship, as stated in its preamble, is focused on the establishment of mechanisms to support industry, although, on the other hand, research, development and innovation are considered, together with education, as essential issues for the involvement of Spanish society in responses to climate change and the promotion of the energy transition. Article 36 promotes the inclusion of climate change and energy transition among the priorities of the Spanish Science and Technology and Innovation Strategies and in the State Plans for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation.
TOWARDS A NEW SOCIAL PACT
The inclusion in the laws of a reference to the role of governments, institutions, social agents and society as a whole is to be welcomed, as humankind faces a problem whose solution requires a global approach and the cross-cutting involvement of citizens and society as a whole and of the different sectors and actors, which must take into account considerations relating to changes in development and growth patterns, behaviours, and consumption habits, and considerations of equity and solidarity.
Apart from the transformation of the economic model, to which it devotes a certain level of detail, the Spanish law echoes the new social contract stemming from international agreements, particularly the most recent 2015 Paris Agreements, the development of their rules in Katowice and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Both laws, the Spanish and Valencian, echo the differential effects of climate change and the measures aimed at the transformation of the economic and social model on different groups and the need to address the most affected and vulnerable of them. In particular, the Spanish law advocates "the equitable distribution of wealth in the decarbonisation process" in a "just transition for the most vulnerable groups and geographical areas... towards a more environmentally friendly production model that is socially beneficial".
In this sense, regulatory frameworks reflect the absolute relevance of and the existing framework for citizen action in terms of values, reduction of consumerism, recycling, waste reduction, more sustainable and friendly cities, reduction of mobility and of the use of polluting means of transport for commuter mobility, environmental awareness, etc. Linked to this point, both laws discussed here echo the importance of education, in line with article six of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -recognised by the 2030 Agenda as the main international intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change- which includes the need to develop public education and awareness programmes on climate change and its effects, public access to information, public engagement and the qualified training of scientific, technical
and managerial personnel. This is also reflected in the article referring to the Social Awareness and Socio-economic Training Programme for the Ecological Transition, and in one of the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, which states the need to "Improve education, awareness and human and institutional capacity with respect to climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning". The Spanish law, in its Title VII, addresses education and training for sustainable development and climate care as an issue "of essential importance for the involvement of Spanish society in the responses to climate change and the promotion of energy transition". Similarly, the Valencian law recognises that “education has a strategic role in the just ecological transition, as society as a whole has to assume in their lifestyle the profound changes resulting from a new social, economic and environmental model”. To this end, “the Law seeks, through the tools of environmental education for sustainability, to make people and organisations aware of the severity of climate change and to prepare them to adopt behaviours, both personally and collectively, in line with the reduction of the ecological footprint and decarbonisation".