The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) is the
department of the
Government of Spain
gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua
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, label1 = Role
, data1 = Executive power
, label2 = Established
, da ...
responsible for developing the government policy on fight against
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, prevention of
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
, protecting the
natural heritage
Natural heritage refers to the sum total of the elements of biodiversity, including flora and fauna, ecosystems and geological structures. It forms part of our natural resources.
Definition
Heritage is that which is ''inherited'' from past gener ...
,
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
,
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
s,
sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
,
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
and
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...
for a more ecological and productive social model.
Likewise, it is responsible for the elaboration and development of the government policy against the country's demographic challenges (
population ageing
Population ageing is an increasing median age in a population because of declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy. Most countries have rising life expectancy and an ageing population, trends that emerged first in developed countries b ...
, territorial
depopulation,
floating population Floating population is a terminology used to describe a group of people who reside in a given population for a certain amount of time and for various reasons, but are not generally considered part of the official census count.
A population is usual ...
effects, etc.).
It corresponds to the MITECO the elaboration of the national legislation on waters and
coast
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
s,
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
, climate change,
meteorology
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
and
climatology
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stud ...
; the direct management of the hydraulic public domain (all types of
surface
A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...
and
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
), of the maritime-terrestrial public domain (
territorial waters
The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...
,
inland waters
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wat ...
, natural resources of the
exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, as well as
beaches
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...
and coasts); the representation of the Kingdom in the international organizations corresponding to these matters; as well as the coordination of actions, cooperation and agreement in the design and application of all policies that affect the scope of competences of the
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
and the other
public administrations, encouraging their participation through the cooperation bodies and instruments adequate.
Likewise, it corresponds to the Ministry the development of the national
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...
and
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
policy, together with the measures aimed at ensuring the energy supply, guaranteeing a correct regulation of the
sector
Sector may refer to:
Places
* Sector, West Virginia, U.S.
Geometry
* Circular sector, the portion of a disc enclosed by two radii and a circular arc
* Hyperbolic sector, a region enclosed by two radii and a hyperbolic arc
* Spherical sector, a p ...
and the analysis and monitoring of these markets, together with mining competencies, all within the framework of the ecological transition.
The MITECO is headed by the Ecological Transition Minister, who is appointed by the
Monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
at request of the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
. Other high officials of the ministry are the
Secretary of State for Energy
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...
, the Secretary of State for Environment, the Secretary-General for the Demographic Challenge and the Under-Secretary of the Department. The current minister is
Teresa Ribera
Teresa Ribera Rodríguez (born 19 May 1969) is a Spanish jurist, university professor, and politician who has served as the Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain since 2018, after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez coming into power follow ...
since 2018.
History
The history of environmental policy in
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
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reaches back to the 18th century, when the Ordinances for Conservation and the Increase of the Marine Mountains and for the Increase and Conservation of Forests and Plantings were promulgated (1748).
The Royal Decree of November 9, 1832, gave the newly created
Ministry of Public Works
This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure.
See also
* Public works
* Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...
jurisdiction over the planting and conservation of the
mountains
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...
and
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s, as well as the irrigation and drainage works of
marshy lands. A year later, the Directorate-General for Forests was created, the first administration dedicated to the conservation of nature. By Royal Decree of 31 May 1837, it was established that the
mounts and plantations which belonged the
Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
and of unknown owner, as belonging to the
Nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
, they would be administered by the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
. The government body entrusted with this task was the Directorate-General for Forests. In 1855 the Forestry Advisory Board was founded.
In the 20th century, the competences in the environment were varying in rank, being mere commissions, directorates-general or even secretaries of State.
All these competences of the ministry were varying between the ministries of
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograph ...
,
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
and
presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...
, until 1993 when the term "Environment" reached the rank of ministry, creating the ''Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Environment''.
But it was not until 1996 when the Environment obtained its own ministry during the presidency of
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain.
A member of the Fre ...
, creating the Ministry of Environment that was in force until 2011 (in 2008 the Ministry assumed the powers in Rural and Marine Environment). In 2011, the new prime minister
Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
merged this ministry with the Ministry of Agriculture, creating the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (2011-2016) and later the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (2016-2018).
In 2018, with the arrival of
Pedro Sánchez
Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
to the premiership, he regained the ministry's autonomy by creating a ministry focused on carrying out an
energy transition towards more ecological means of production, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. For this purpose Sánchez appointed
Teresa Ribera
Teresa Ribera Rodríguez (born 19 May 1969) is a Spanish jurist, university professor, and politician who has served as the Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain since 2018, after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez coming into power follow ...
as minister and her ministry assumed for the first time responsibilities on energy policy, a policy that historically belonged to the ministries of
Industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
or
Economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
.
In 2020, in order to improve the environmental policies that this department was doing, the Prime Minister promoted minister Ribera to the rank of
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...
and it trusted her the responsibilities on the different demographic challenges that Spain had. Nowadays, the official name (
in Spanish) is Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico as a new, changed name from the previously named Ministerio del Medio Ambiente.
Denomination of the Ministry
Despite its long history, the agency did not reach the rank of ministry until 1993:
* Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Environment (1993-1996)
* Ministry of Environment (1996-2008)
* Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (2008-2011)
* Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (2011-2016)
* Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (2016-2018)
* Ministry for the Ecological Transition (2018-2020)
* Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (2020-)
Structure
The Ministry's structure is:
* The
Secretariat of State for Energy
** The Commissioner for the Promotion of Sustainable Energy in the Islands, created to coordinate and promote public policies for
sustainable energy
Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...
in the
Balearic and
Canary
Canary originally referred to the island of Gran Canaria on the west coast of Africa, and the group of surrounding islands (the Canary Islands). It may also refer to:
Animals Birds
* Canaries, birds in the genera ''Serinus'' and ''Crithagra'' i ...
archipelagos.
** The Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mines
**The Deputy Directorate-General for Energy Foresight, Strategy and Regulation
* The Secretariat of State for Environment
** The Directorate-General for Water
** The Spanish Office for Climate Change
** The Directorate-General for Environmental Quality and Evaluation
** The Directorate-General for the Coast and the Sea
**The Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification
* The General Secretariat for the Demographic Challenge.
**The Directorate-General for Depopulation Policies
*The Undersecretariat for the Ecologial Transition
** The Technical General Secretariat
**The Directorate-General for Services
**The Deputy Directorate-General for International Relations
Ministry agencies and enterprises
*
National Parks Autonomous Agency
The National Parks Autonomous Agency (OAPN) is an List of agencies in Spain, autonomous agency of the Spanish Government of Spain, central government that manages the List of national parks of Spain, National Parks Network and the Spanish Biospher ...
.
*
State Meteorological Agency.
* Institute for Just Transition.
* Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy.
* City of Energy Foundation.
* Biodiversity Foundation.
* National Company of Radioactive Waste.
* Strategic Reserves of Petroleum Products Corporation.
Ministers of Environment
Reign of Juan Carlos I (1975-2014)
Reign of
Felipe VI
Felipe VI (;,
* eu, Felipe VI.a,
* ca, Felip VI,
* gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and h ...
(2014-present)
References
External links
Ministry of Environment
{{authority control
Environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
Environment of Spain
Environment ministries
Environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
Ministries established in 1993
1993 establishments in Spain
Environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...