The University of Barcelona has once again hosted the Environmental Conference, which the institution organizes in partnership with Família Torres. The fourteenth edition has focused on environmental policies and the controversy they generate, building on previous years' editions, which have explored key issues shaping everyone's future.
During his opening remarks, the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, called for a move from diagnosis and pilot projects to concrete action to achieve the energy transition. Tomàs Molina, who, in addition to chairing the event, led the expert advisory committee that organized it, emphasized that the conference brings together the perspectives of science and society - which often clash - and that the meeting can help to identify these points of friction.
The president of Família Torres, Miguel A. Torres, has described himself as "rather pessimistic". He pointed out that, although there has been progress in renewable energy and the electrification of transport, oil companies continue to receive subsidies and, furthermore, promote "climate denialism" that prevents further and faster progress.
Environmental policies and sources of conflict
Marc Vilahur, an environmental scientist and director-general of Environmental Policy and Natural Heritage at the Government of Catalonia, opened the lectures with a talk focusing on the practical application of ideas relating to the environment and sustainability. "Environmental policies - he said - generate controversy because they involve real change. This means revolutionizing many habits across the board, a complication that must be taken very seriously." "However - he concluded - it is essential for the survival of our societies as we know them, and we must explain this and place it at the heart of decision-making, adopting scales, indicators and mechanisms that enable us to move forward."
Environmental policies give rise to conflicts and debates, a topic discussed by Amaranta Herrero, who holds a degree in Sociology, a PhD in Environmental Sciences and is a professor at the UB. Herrero pointed out that social conflicts are a driving force for change, and that environmental conflicts are no exception. They take many different forms (urban planning, waste, extractive industries, etc.), but they are always "a clash between industrialism and environmentalism". She said that economic opposition, but above all a clash of worldviews, leads to situations such as environmental protests against solar farms, a struggle in which the same values take on contradictory forms during a period of transition. "What we need to understand - she said - is that we cannot make localized changes while societies remain the same; rather, they must also change to adapt to the future, through a profound and far-reaching transformation."
Ricard Ramon, head of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan within the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke via video to discuss competition for land use. He explained that, recently, nine million hectares of farmland have been lost, although production has increased thanks to technological improvements, and that urbanization is the primary cause of agricultural land loss (the second cause being abandonment and reforestation). He added that, furthermore, "there are energy uses", and that food security "is a central priority, and we must protect production by taking clear action". According to Ramon, the new CAP must enable us to "support the agricultural sector" in the face of new challenges, making it competitive and adapting it to climate change.
