The Repsol Foundation and the A Coruña Chamber of Commerce address the energy transition of Galician companies

Reportaje

25/11/2021

This morning saw the start of the "The challenge of the Energy Transition in Galician companies" conference organised by the Repsol Foundation and the A Coruña Chamber of Commerce, which will analyse the roadmap of different Galician companies in terms of sustainability and energy transition. Tomorrow the second conference will take place, which will be inaugurated by the President of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the President of Repsol, Antonio Brufau.

(António Calçada, Director General de Fundación Repsol; Antonio Couceiro, Presidente de la Cámara de Comercio de A Coruña; Francisco Conde, vicepresidente económico y conselleiro de Economía, Empresa e Innovación)

This morning saw the start of the ""The challenge of the Energy Transition in Galician companies” conference designed by the Repsol Foundation and the A Coruña Chamber of Commerce to analyse, over today and tomorrow, the roadmap for companies in terms of sustainability, as well as the future of mobility and the role that technology will play in the decarbonisation process.

The institutional opening was given by the President of the A Coruña Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Couceiro, who pointed out in his speech that“ ""the consequences that may arise from climate change, and which directly affect economic activity (...) In 2015, an inflection in the strategy to be followed at a global level took place when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an action plan whose priority goals (SDGs) include taking urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects.

We are all aware that measures have to be taken, the question is how they should be implemented in order to achieve a balanced transition, what has been called a fair transition, so that companies, administrations and citizens, can migrate to new energy systems without damaging economic activity, establishing reasonable deadlines and adequate compensation systems"".

The economic vice-president and regional minister of Economy, Enterprise and Innovation, Francisco Conde, emphasised that the energy transition will be fair if it is compatible with industrial development and guarantees the maintenance of associated employment.

In the same way, he pointed out that technology and innovation are the technological solutions to advance in decarbonisation, pointing out that digitalisation and sustainability form an indivisible binomial on which economic reactivation must hinge.

The Executive Managing Director of the Repsol Foundation, Antonio Calçada, said that in order to tackle an energy transition in an agile and cost-efficient way, a triple challenge must be overcome: Technological,, economic and regulatory issues. “We need to innovate in technologies that allow us to move towards decarbonisation, some of which are still in the early stages, and to encourage competition, while protecting our industrial capacities and employment"".

This was followed by the round table on ""Technological solutions for decarbonisation"", which examined in depth the technological levers that will play a key role in the process of reducing emissions, led by the Galician Renewable Energy Cluster (CLUERGAL), the Galician Technological Institute (ITG) and the Repsol Industrial Complex in A Coruña.

In the final part of the day and under the title ""The opportunities of the energy transition. SMEs experience and the third sector”, the benefits derived from new energy models have been analysed, with the participation of Coregal, a special employment centre focused on integrated waste management, Genesal Energy, a company that manufactures generator sets and the Energy Institute of Galicia (INEGA).

The conferences are part of the activities programmed by Repsol Open Room, a Repsol Foundation initiative that aims to promote rigorous and objective debate on the energy transition in order to generate quality information accessible to the entire society.

Conference on Friday, 26 November(see programme)

Tomorrow the second conference will take place, which will be inaugurated by the President of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the President of Repsol and its Foundation, Antonio Brufau, as well as the President of the A Coruña Chamber of Commerce , Antonio Couceiro.

This will be followed by a round table discussion on ""Sustainable Mobility” with the participation of Pérez Rumbao, the Department of Urban Planning and Mobility of the City Council of A Coruña and the Galician Automotive Technology Centre (CTAG).

The conference will end with the round table on ""Energy transition and the roadmap of large companies"", with the participation of the Repsol Industrial Complex in A Coruña, the Port Authority of A Coruña, Reganosa, Estrella Galicia, Abanca and Nueva Pescanova.