Carbureaucracy: administrative paralysis also pollutes

There are various ways to classify administrative activity. One is based on the effects of that activity on citizens' rights. In this classification, in addition to public service or provision activities (think of healthcare, education, culture, or transport), there are two other fundamental activities: regulatory enforcement and promotional activity. The first restricts the capacity for activity, freedom, and rights of individuals, for example, by subjecting an activity to prior authorisation or a licence. The second aims to incentivise or stimulate, through economic aid and subsidies among other measures, the activity of individuals towards goals of general interest. In short: the stick and the carrot.

In Spain, and specifically in the Electricity Sector, the public administration has, over the past twenty years, deployed an intense promotional activity (the carrot) based on aid, subsidies, and specific remuneration schemes for the progressive integration, into the electricity systems, of renewable-based generation facilities.

In parallel with this promotional activity, since 1997, when Law 54/1997 was enacted—changing forever both the model and the regulation of the Electricity Sector in Spain—we have witnessed a true regulatory diarrhoea that has led to the construction of a regulatory framework that can only be described as profuse, confusing, and vague (the stick).

Let's look at a practical example of the simultaneous application of the carrot and the stick in the case of renewable energy integration in the electricity systems of the Canary Islands and its direct consequence: ‘carbureaucracy’, which can be defined as a new activity of the Administration by virtue of which it contributes to the increase of CO₂ levels in the atmosphere as a consequence of its inaction and ineptitude.

The promotional activity (the carrot)

Among all the promotional actions in renewable energy carried out by the Spanish Government in the Canary Islands, two stand out: in 2014, Order IET/1459/2014 (assigning the right to a new specific remuneration scheme for wind and photovoltaic technology facilities), and in 2018, Order TEC/1380/2018 (establishing investment aid for electricity generation facilities with wind and photovoltaic technologies co-financed with European Regional Development Funds). Both calls imposed strict deadlines on renewable developers for the materialisation of the investments.

The policing activity (the stick)

The existing regulatory framework in the Canary Islands (sectoral, environmental, urban planning, and land management), impermeable to the energy transition, manifestly prevented renewable developers from meeting the deadlines imposed by both calls for aid and subsidies.

Faced with a lack of initiative to drive the necessary regulatory change and a lack of leadership to organise its own departments effectively, both in terms of human and material resources, the Government of the Canary Islands chose to 'turn a blind eye' in its policing activity, temporarily withdrawing 'the stick'.

Indeed, regarding the first of the calls, the Government of the Canary Islands exceptionally excluded certain projects from the environmental impact assessment process. The wind farms excluded from the environmental impact procedure totalled 157.15 MW of power.

On the other hand, facing the second call, the Government of the Canary Islands had to resort to exceptional regulatory instruments. Thus, during the 2018-2022 period, the Government published a total of 45 decrees exempting 31 wind and 14 photovoltaic facilities from complying with urban planning regulations, for a total capacity of 318 MW, forcing the competent administrations to modify the existing planning which prohibited the construction of said facilities. 

'Carbureaucracy': the new in-activity of the administration

The consequence of this is that, in 2015, the installed capacity was 360.4 MW and the integration percentage was 7.7%, well below the capacity to be installed (1,308.1 MW) and the integration percentage (31.5%) required by the PECAN 2005-2015 plan.

Furthermore, in the period that would correspond to the scope of the EECAN 2015-2025 strategy, the installed capacity was 922.0 MW and the integration percentage was 19.8%, far below the capacity to be installed (1,660.1 MW), and the integration percentage (47%) required by this plan.

The result of all this shoddy action is that, at the end of 2024, the average contribution of renewable energies to the archipelago's electricity demand was 22.4%, a far cry from the targets set in the national NECP plan (81% for 2030).

To summarise the example, it is clear that the applicable regulatory framework acts as a barrier to the effective integration of renewable energies and the decarbonisation of electricity systems within the planned timeframes, and that the administration cannot solve problems with patches, fixes, or exceptional measures in the face of its evident lack of initiative to drive the necessary regulatory change.

'The polluter pays'. This principle, enshrined by the European Union and which governs EU environmental policies, must begin to be applied to the Public Administration, because bureaucracy, an activity exclusive to the Administration, is a polluting activity responsible for the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Bureaucracy pollutes because, within an already convoluted regulatory framework, every day of delay in granting an authorisation for a wind farm or a photovoltaic installation means that the emission of the volume of CO2 or greenhouse gases that those renewable energy generation facilities would have avoided has not been prevented.

Therefore, it is necessary to begin, without further delay, the de-carbureaucratisation of the economy, that is, the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere (decarbonisation) through administrative simplification (de-bureaucratisation).