Sara Aagesen replaces Teresa Ribera in the Government after the latter’s departure to Brussels

Eduardo González The current Secretary of State 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 this Monday 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”, who, since her arrival in the Government in 2018, when she was already “an international reference in the fight against climate change”, gave a “fundamental boost” to the green economy and the development of renewable energies and contributed to “millions of families and companies having significantly reduced their electricity bill”, said Pedro Sánchez during his appearance without questions before journalists. Her “good work is beyond any doubt”, continued Sánchez. Teresa Ribera, she said, leaves behind a “great legislative and management legacy”, including the Climate Change Law or the protection of ecosystems such as the Doñana National Park”, and her appointment to the European Commission, “overcoming lies and manoeuvres”, represents “a loss for Spain and a gain for all of Europe”, because she will provide the Community Executive with a “progressive, expert and common-sense voice within Europe when it is most needed in the face of the denialist current that unfortunately ravages Europe and also the world”. To fill her position, she continued, “no one better” than Sara Aagesen, who comes to “give continuity and expand that impressive legacy that Teresa Ribera leaves in our country” and, therefore, “embodies those same values of rigour, professionalism and expert knowledge”. The new vice-president, he said, is “one of the greatest experts in our country in energy transition, also in environmental policy and throughout more than 20 years of distinguished professional career”. For this reason, he added, “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 demonstrate that we can grow and create wealth while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and taking care of the environment, the biodiversity of our country, doing so in an equitable, supportive and responsible manner,” said the President of the Government, who also added that with her appointment the Executive maintains its “commitment to parity”, with three women in the vice-presidencies of the Executive. Teresa Ribera to the Commission Teresa Ribera will assume her new position in Brussels after, last week, the leaders of the three main parliamentary groups, Manfred Weber (PPE), Iratxe García (S&D) and Valérie Hayer (RE), reached an agreement that will allow the new Community Executive to come into force on 1 December. To reach this agreement, the EPP will have to lift the veto on Teresa Ribera, which was pushed last time by the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in protest at her handling of the DANA crisis. In return, the Social Democrats will do the same with the far-right Raffaele Fitto, the candidate of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, will appear before the European Parliament on 27 November to present her new college of commissioners and her programme. Afterwards, voting will begin for the election of the new Commission, with its commissioners and vice-presidencies, which, if confirmed, would begin its functions on 1 December. Ribera will assume the positions of executive vice-president for the Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition and Commissioner for Competition. Sara Aagesen 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.

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