Eduardo González
The current State Secretary for Energy, Sara Aagesen, has been appointed third vice-president of the Government and Minister of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge replacing Teresa Ribera, who from this week will serve as executive vice-president of the new European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, as reported by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in an institutional statement.
“I want to take this opportunity to recognise the figure of Teresa Ribera” whose drive has been fundamental for the green economy and the climate transition”, declared Sánchez. Her “good work is beyond any doubt” and her appointment to the Commission, “overcoming lies and manoeuvres”, is “a loss for Spain and a gain for all of Europe”, he assured.
To fill her position, he continued, “no one better” than Sara Aagesen. “I am sure that, under the leadership of Sara Aagesen, Spain will continue to be a European and world reference in terms of green and fair transition. We will continue to show that we can grow and create wealth while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and taking care of the environment, she said. In addition, she added, with her appointment the Government maintains its “commitment to parity”, with three women as vice-presidents of the Executive.
Teresa Ribera, who will assume her new position on December 1 after the main groups in the European Parliament reached an agreement last week to unblock her appointment to the European Commission and once the veto promoted by Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s PP was overcome.
Born in Madrid in 1976 and a chemical engineer from the Complutense University of Madrid, specialising in the Environment (2001), Sara Aagesen joined the Climate Change Office in 2002, where she has developed a career linked to climate action and the energy transition both at the national and international level. Among other responsibilities, she has been in charge of the sectoral analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and projections, energy scenarios and planning in the different economic sectors, and has participated in the design and development of innovative measures and instruments for climate change mitigation in Spain.
Negotiator for the Spanish delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002, she has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), sponsored by the United Nations Environment Organization, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in addition to participating as a national expert in various working groups of the European Commission and in the monitoring and evaluation of community regulatory development.
In 2018, she was appointed advisor to the cabinet of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, where she has been responsible for the direction, coordination and definition of the draft of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030 and the Long-Term Strategy 2050. She has also participated in the design of policies and measures of the new regulatory framework in the field of energy. In 2013 she was awarded the Cross of the Civil Order of Environmental Merit, awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
