Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans on Wednesday to set up a climate shelter network.
A network of government buildings will be made available to the public by next summer to help protect against the increasingly extreme heat.
The network will build on already existing plans running in the autonomous regions of Catalonia and the Basque Country.
What did Spain’s Sanchez say about the climate shelter network?
“Devastating droughts and heat waves are no longer rare,” Sanchez told a climate conference in Madrid.
“Some summers, we do not experience separate waves, but rather one long heat wave lasting from June to August. This is now the new normal.” He insisted.
“Before next summer, we are going to set up a nationwide network of climate shelters using government buildings – especially those from the central administration – and make them available to everyone,” Sanchez said.
The Prime Minister said the government would also provide funding to set up shelters in areas “that need them most, where the heat really hits people the hardest.”
What is Spain doing about climate change?
The network of shelters is one of 80 concrete measures announced by Sanchez at the conference.
They were put together after nearly 4,000 proposals were sent in by citizens, ecologists and scientists.
These measures include areas such as coastal and marine systems, investments to tackle floods and fires in villages, and tackling misinformation on climate change.
Sanchez emphasizes that 88% of the population considers climate change “a serious problem on which we have to act,” including voters on all sides of the political spectrum, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE reports.
During the conference, the Spanish Prime Minister also criticized the EU’s decision to weaken a 2035 ban on petrol and diesel cars, calling it a “historic mistake”.
Climate change, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is already having a major impact on the planet and making life more difficult in many regions, including Europe, where longer and more intense heat waves, wildfires and drought are becoming the norm.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko