Spain

Overview

Senior Representative

Dr Teresa Riesgo Alcaide

Ministry of Science and Innovation

Role in Mission Innovation

• Core member of the Green Powered Future Mission

News and events

• [24 October, 2024] Spain’s updated National Innovation Pathway.
• [23 September, 2022] The Minister for Science and Innovation of Spain, Diana Morant, announced Spain’s membership of Mission Innovation at the 7th MI Ministerial, convened as part of the Global Clean Energy Action Forum. “

National Innovation Pathway

Spain is fully engaged, within the European framework, in an energy transition focussed in being climate neutral by 2050. For that purpose, since 2019 a Strategic Energy and Climate Framework (MEEC) has been defined, with three main axes: mitigation, adaptation and just transition, constituting the key tool to achieve the fundamental objective of decarbonization of our economy. The MEEC, provides a regulatory and legal framework for all the measures that are already being implemented, as well as certainty to investments. It also commits the country to the development of the territories that may be affected by the energy transition process. The MEEC is being carried out by the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD), being the key pieces that make up this Framework:

• The Climate Change and Energy Transition Law (LCCTE), a regulatory and institutional framework to facilitate the progressive adaptation of our reality to the demands that regulate climate action. This tool will facilitate and guide the decarbonization of the Spanish economy by 2050.
• The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (NECP), a strategic document that defines the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), penetration of renewable energies and energy efficiency. The NECP also constitutes the main strategic tool to organize and plan policies and measures to comply with Spain’s commitments to climate change.
• The Just Transition Strategy (JTS), an instrument that allows the identification and adoption of measures that guarantee workers and territories affected by the transition to a low-carbon economy, equitable and supportive treatment. The objective is that there are no negative impacts on employment or depopulation.
• The National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030 (NPACC), a basic planning instrument to promote coordinated action against the effects of climate change in Spain, whose main objective is to avoid or reduce present and future damages derived from climate change and build an economy and a more resilient society.
• The Long-Term Decarbonization Strategy (ELP,2050), an instrument that will allow Spain to reduce, no later than 2050, its GHG by 90% compared to 1990.
• The National Strategy Against Energy Poverty (NSAEP), integrates all the actions underway and planned in the different public policies to fight against energy poverty and guarantee the effective exercise of this right of all citizens to energy.

These key instruments are being reinforced by a range of sectoral strategies and roadmaps (such as the Storage Strategy, the Self Consumption Strategy, and the Renewable Hydrogen Roadmap).

The energy transition process to achieve climate neutrality in 2050, must be, necessarily, accompanied by a R&D&I strategy that ranges from the generation of knowledge to deployment, scale ups and cost reduction of low-carbon technologies. The Spanish Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy (EECTI) 2021-2027, carried out by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), is conceived as the multiannual reference framework that will make possible to reach a set of targets shared by all the public administrations with competences in the field of promotion of scientific and technical research and innovation. Among them, there is one dedicated to Climate, Energy, and Mobility, specifically focused on climate change, decarbonisation, mobility, and sustainability. The EECTI is the reference instrument for the development of the National Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation Plans (PEICTI), which include the criteria and mechanisms to link them to the sectoral policies of the Government, the Autonomous Regions, and the various public administrations.

In response to the challenges experienced in recent years (the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), priorities have been rearranged, also in Spain, to guarantee security of supply and accelerate the energy transition. Foreign energy dependence has become, in a tangible way, a threat to social well-being and economic competitiveness. The response of the European Union to this situation has been articulated through the Next Generation EU Funds, that has required from each Member State the design of a Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). Within this PRTR framework, and in the context of clean energy innovation strategy, two instruments are highlighted. The first, coordinated by the MICIU, are the Complementary Plans which are collaborations with the Autonomous Regions in R&D&I actions in which common priorities of the PEICTI and regional plans converge, allowing synergies to be established in strategic areas. Such is the case for energy and renewable hydrogen.

The second, are the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTEs), created as instruments of public-private collaboration in which different public administrations, companies and research centres collaborate. Their objective is to promote large initiatives that clearly contribute to the transformation of the Spanish economy and that aim to last and exceed the time frame of the PRTR. To date, twelve strategic projects have been approved, among which stand out, due to their special connection with the energy and climate area, the PERTE for renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and storage (EHRA), the PERTE for the development of the electrical and vehicle sector connected (VEC) and the PERTE for industrial decarbonization. Actions to promote R&I&C are incorporated into these strategic projects.