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Chaos in Barcelona including a manhunt: Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont returned to Spain on Thursday, but was not arrested despite an immense police presence. Isabel Cuesta Camacho has all the details.
With his performance, Puigdemont stole the show of one person in particular: the socialist Salvador Illa has been elected regional president of Catalonia. 68 members of the regional parliament in Barcelona voted for Illa, 67 against him. Spanish newspapers wrote of a historic election that opens up a new future for the troubled region, but the new regional government must first demonstrate that it can survive, as you can read in our feature.
In the news section you can also read about the EU Commission’s decision on the transfer of Frans Timmermans’ former head of cabinet, Diederik Samsom, to the Dutch state-owned company Gasunie.
Have a good start to the weekend, but first read Europe.Table.
After seven years abroad, Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Barcelona. Despite a large police presence, he was not arrested during a public speech in front of thousands of supporters in Barcelona on Thursday and has since gone into hiding. The 61-year-old announced that he wanted to revive efforts to achieve Catalonia’s independence from Spain.
His return to Spain was a challenge to the justice system. Puigdemont is the subject of an arrest warrant for embezzlement in connection with the separatist trial from 2017. The Catalan had returned to Spain on the occasion of the election of the socialist Salvador Illa as regional president in the regional parliament. Two police officers were arrested for allegedly helping Puigdemont to flee.
Puigdemont’s speech to his supporters in front of the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona lasted just under six minutes. “I don’t know how long it will be before we see each other again, friends, but whatever happens, when we meet again, I hope we can shout together what I said in my speech: long live a free Catalonia,” he ended his speech. His lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, then took Puigdemont by the arm and told him “vamonos” (“let’s go”). Puigdemont disappeared on camera before the plenary session for the inauguration of Illa began at 10 a.m..
After Puigdemont disappeared into the crowd of supporters, the police ordered roadblocks in Catalonia. The operation “Operación Jaula” (Operation Cage) was ended unsuccessfully after four hours, around midday. The separatist leader remains in hiding.
Puigdemont had hoped that the amnesty law, which was negotiated after the last parliamentary elections, would apply to him. However, the Supreme Court refused to apply the amnesty law for the crime of embezzlement to all those convicted at the time, including Puigdemont. In addition to the embezzlement proceedings, Puigdemont is also being investigated in the so-called Volhov case for alleged Russian interference. Puigdemont is accused of high treason because he is said to have maintained contact with the Kremlin to gain support for Catalan independence.
Neither Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez nor his ministers commented on Puigdemont’s appearance and disappearance. The leader of the opposition and the People’s Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, wrote that it was “humiliating” and unforgivable to damage Spain’s image in this way. Cuca Gamarra, spokesperson for the PP, explained that Puigdemont had wanted to detach Catalonia from the Spanish state and that Pedro Sánchez had detached the Spanish state from Catalonia.
Meanwhile, Salvador Illa received 68 votes in his election as regional president – one more than the required majority of 67 votes. Sánchez congratulated him on X.
However, the chaos surrounding his election has shown that his government is likely to lack stability. Illa’s most important partner in the new legislative period, the Esquerra Republicana per Catalunya (ERC), warned the Socialists that he would only retain their support if Illa kept “his promises.” Among them: the fiscal independence of Catalonia.
Constitutional law expert Alberto Ruíz Robledo from the University of Granada told Table.Briefings that “the 100 percent tax retention of Catalonia is unconstitutional.” In addition, the Spanish Finance Minister María Jesús Montero categorically refused to hand over financial sovereignty to Catalonia last November.
Constitutional law expert Roberto Blanco adds that an amendment to the Financing Law of the Autonomous Communities (Ley Organza de Financiación de Comunidades Autónomas, LOFCA) is required for Catalonia’s fiscal independence to be effective. Such an amendment could only be approved by the National Congress of Deputies. “Illa is promising something that is not in his hands,” emphasizes Blanco.
In July, the international scientific society IASTEC published a statement on the EU’s car CO2 regulation. It discussed the consequences of the legislation for 2030. The key message of this statement is that the EU regulation on CO2 fleet regulation will miss the targets for a rapid reduction in CO2 emissions from passenger cars. As a result, the EU will be in breach of the Paris Climate Agreement. IASTEC is therefore calling on the legislator to revise the CO2 fleet legislation promptly – including a tightening of targets based on the expected CO2 emissions.
T&E’s reaction to the statement is significant. It exemplifies how this organization of environmental lobbyists works and tries to influence the legislature. The T&E author accuses IASTEC of a lack of understanding of the issue. But that’s not all: T&E accuses the scientists of making false statements, serious errors, inadmissible simplifications and inpermissible and incorrect calculation bases. The statement concludes with the accusation that IASTEC has already instigated questionable sham debates in the past.
The argumentation is astonishing, the T&E accusations lack any factual basis. One can get the impression that T&E is not at all concerned with optimal CO2 reduction. Briefly on the accusation of scientific errors: IASTEC makes use of numerous scientific publications, including data from the most comprehensive balance sheet analysis available for a vehicle assessment in Germany. It was published by the VDI in December 2023 and has undergone a critical review by the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland).
Germany’s electricity grid was mapped with a 15-minute resolution, taking into account the “climate-neutral Germany 2045” expansion scenario. The potential of “renewables” has been taken into account, storage potential has been analyzed and comprehensive sensitivity analyses have been carried out. The certificate-free production volumes of the vehicles, including raw material data from manufacturers (battery, drive and so on), were modeled and battery cell production in China was considered, with further analyses even including the regional situation there. T&E seems to have missed these important scientific publications. Or did T&E not want to take note of them?
Now to the central statement of the balance analysis: using the example of freeway operation for a battery electric vehicle (BEV), after a mileage of 200,000 kilometers by 2035, including production (around 18 tons of CO2), the total emission is 42.9 tons of CO2. This corresponds to 214 grams of CO2 per kilometer. This assumes BEV-friendly premises: comprehensive achievement of the expansion targets, no heating operation in winter, no battery replacement, no bottlenecks in the expansion of the power grid, no influence of infrastructure development and more. In comparison, the diesel car: without the use of low-CO2 fuels, the diesel drive covers the distance including production with 34.1 tons of CO2 (171 grams of CO2/km) and represents an alternative with potential for improvement.
T&E contrasts this methodically and scientifically verified balance sheet analysis with other data. And thus commits balance sheet fraud. T&E works with an average value approach and thus underestimates the real CO2 values. This error was not pointed out by a small group, as T&E implies. Rather, hundreds of scientists and energy engineers representing the subject area at many universities pointed this out to the EU Commission in 2021. To date, this presentation has not been scientifically contradicted.
For explanation: The electricity mix represents the average CO2 emissions of an electricity system using CO2-favorable wind and photovoltaic systems or coal and gas, for example 380 grams of CO2 per kWh. If 1 kWh less energy were to be withdrawn from the grid, this would result in the amount of CO2 that could actually be saved by an electrical consumer. However, this does not amount to 380 grams of CO2. The wind would not stop blowing with a lower load and the sun would not stop shining. The marginal costs are approximately twice as high as the marginal tax rate is higher than the average tax rate.
With the balance sheet trick of the mean value approach, which T&E uses, one arrives at more favorable emissions from electrical consumers. In the above case, only 29.6 tons of CO2 would be produced, which corresponds to 148 grams of CO2/km. Proponents of the mean value approach, such as T&E, always point to the capping of the EU emissions trading system. However, as the ETS is no longer a pure “cap and trade” system due to feedback mechanisms such as the market stability reserve, this criticism from T&E also falls short. In addition, the values of 75 grams of CO2/km including production listed by T&E cannot be explained for the electricity mix of several EU member states. The CO2 footprint of BEVs is grossly understated here.
To put this into context: for years, international experts – university professors, researchers, recognized scientific societies – have been highly disconcerted by the transparent and vulnerable methods used by T&E. The European umbrella organization of environmental organizations, T&E, together with its national member organizations, including DUH, has considerable financial resources at its disposal. It is estimated that this association has an annual budget of several hundred million euros.
They use this money for questionable lobbying. One example is their campaign against climate-neutral fuels (reFuels = eFuels and bioFuels): Negative headlines are provoked to discredit the concept of reFuels. Fuel production and the results of T&E were not scientifically verifiable. It is repeatedly claimed that eFuels are too expensive and the fact ignored that production costs of €0.8/l to €1.7/l have long been within reach. T&E repeatedly invokes the alleged inefficiency of eFuels in particular. However, companies and scientists have long recognized the potential of production sites with a high wind/solar harvest factor (factor 2-4 above Germany). Financially strong companies are planning or building production capacities for climate-neutral fuels at wind and sun-rich locations in Tierra del Fuego, the USA, Africa or Arabia. Instead of seeing the potential for CO2 savings in transport, T&E continues to run smear campaigns.
Legislators be warned: T&E is in the dubious business of environmental lobbying. Elsewhere in the world, people are not falling for the campaigns: California has decided to replace 100 percent of fossil diesel fuel with reFuels by 2030. Sweden is planning a 60 percent share, while India and Brazil are forging the world’s largest biofuel alliance. In Europe, however, this addition is being hindered. In conclusion, T&E emphasizes that sticking to the combustion engine is a backward-looking position. The highly industrialized world in China, Japan or Korea is preparing efficient combustion engines with low CO2 fuels. Did T&E also miss this message from China in December 2023?
Thomas Koch heads the Institute for Piston Machines at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Chaos in Barcelona including a manhunt: Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont returned to Spain on Thursday, but was not arrested despite an immense police presence. Isabel Cuesta Camacho has all the details.
With his performance, Puigdemont stole the show of one person in particular: the socialist Salvador Illa has been elected regional president of Catalonia. 68 members of the regional parliament in Barcelona voted for Illa, 67 against him. Spanish newspapers wrote of a historic election that opens up a new future for the troubled region, but the new regional government must first demonstrate that it can survive, as you can read in our feature.
In the news section you can also read about the EU Commission’s decision on the transfer of Frans Timmermans’ former head of cabinet, Diederik Samsom, to the Dutch state-owned company Gasunie.
Have a good start to the weekend, but first read Europe.Table.
After seven years abroad, Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Barcelona. Despite a large police presence, he was not arrested during a public speech in front of thousands of supporters in Barcelona on Thursday and has since gone into hiding. The 61-year-old announced that he wanted to revive efforts to achieve Catalonia’s independence from Spain.
His return to Spain was a challenge to the justice system. Puigdemont is the subject of an arrest warrant for embezzlement in connection with the separatist trial from 2017. The Catalan had returned to Spain on the occasion of the election of the socialist Salvador Illa as regional president in the regional parliament. Two police officers were arrested for allegedly helping Puigdemont to flee.
Puigdemont’s speech to his supporters in front of the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona lasted just under six minutes. “I don’t know how long it will be before we see each other again, friends, but whatever happens, when we meet again, I hope we can shout together what I said in my speech: long live a free Catalonia,” he ended his speech. His lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, then took Puigdemont by the arm and told him “vamonos” (“let’s go”). Puigdemont disappeared on camera before the plenary session for the inauguration of Illa began at 10 a.m..
After Puigdemont disappeared into the crowd of supporters, the police ordered roadblocks in Catalonia. The operation “Operación Jaula” (Operation Cage) was ended unsuccessfully after four hours, around midday. The separatist leader remains in hiding.
Puigdemont had hoped that the amnesty law, which was negotiated after the last parliamentary elections, would apply to him. However, the Supreme Court refused to apply the amnesty law for the crime of embezzlement to all those convicted at the time, including Puigdemont. In addition to the embezzlement proceedings, Puigdemont is also being investigated in the so-called Volhov case for alleged Russian interference. Puigdemont is accused of high treason because he is said to have maintained contact with the Kremlin to gain support for Catalan independence.
Neither Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez nor his ministers commented on Puigdemont’s appearance and disappearance. The leader of the opposition and the People’s Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, wrote that it was “humiliating” and unforgivable to damage Spain’s image in this way. Cuca Gamarra, spokesperson for the PP, explained that Puigdemont had wanted to detach Catalonia from the Spanish state and that Pedro Sánchez had detached the Spanish state from Catalonia.
Meanwhile, Salvador Illa received 68 votes in his election as regional president – one more than the required majority of 67 votes. Sánchez congratulated him on X.
However, the chaos surrounding his election has shown that his government is likely to lack stability. Illa’s most important partner in the new legislative period, the Esquerra Republicana per Catalunya (ERC), warned the Socialists that he would only retain their support if Illa kept “his promises.” Among them: the fiscal independence of Catalonia.
Constitutional law expert Alberto Ruíz Robledo from the University of Granada told Table.Briefings that “the 100 percent tax retention of Catalonia is unconstitutional.” In addition, the Spanish Finance Minister María Jesús Montero categorically refused to hand over financial sovereignty to Catalonia last November.
Constitutional law expert Roberto Blanco adds that an amendment to the Financing Law of the Autonomous Communities (Ley Organza de Financiación de Comunidades Autónomas, LOFCA) is required for Catalonia’s fiscal independence to be effective. Such an amendment could only be approved by the National Congress of Deputies. “Illa is promising something that is not in his hands,” emphasizes Blanco.
In July, the international scientific society IASTEC published a statement on the EU’s car CO2 regulation. It discussed the consequences of the legislation for 2030. The key message of this statement is that the EU regulation on CO2 fleet regulation will miss the targets for a rapid reduction in CO2 emissions from passenger cars. As a result, the EU will be in breach of the Paris Climate Agreement. IASTEC is therefore calling on the legislator to revise the CO2 fleet legislation promptly – including a tightening of targets based on the expected CO2 emissions.
T&E’s reaction to the statement is significant. It exemplifies how this organization of environmental lobbyists works and tries to influence the legislature. The T&E author accuses IASTEC of a lack of understanding of the issue. But that’s not all: T&E accuses the scientists of making false statements, serious errors, inadmissible simplifications and inpermissible and incorrect calculation bases. The statement concludes with the accusation that IASTEC has already instigated questionable sham debates in the past.
The argumentation is astonishing, the T&E accusations lack any factual basis. One can get the impression that T&E is not at all concerned with optimal CO2 reduction. Briefly on the accusation of scientific errors: IASTEC makes use of numerous scientific publications, including data from the most comprehensive balance sheet analysis available for a vehicle assessment in Germany. It was published by the VDI in December 2023 and has undergone a critical review by the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland).
Germany’s electricity grid was mapped with a 15-minute resolution, taking into account the “climate-neutral Germany 2045” expansion scenario. The potential of “renewables” has been taken into account, storage potential has been analyzed and comprehensive sensitivity analyses have been carried out. The certificate-free production volumes of the vehicles, including raw material data from manufacturers (battery, drive and so on), were modeled and battery cell production in China was considered, with further analyses even including the regional situation there. T&E seems to have missed these important scientific publications. Or did T&E not want to take note of them?
Now to the central statement of the balance analysis: using the example of freeway operation for a battery electric vehicle (BEV), after a mileage of 200,000 kilometers by 2035, including production (around 18 tons of CO2), the total emission is 42.9 tons of CO2. This corresponds to 214 grams of CO2 per kilometer. This assumes BEV-friendly premises: comprehensive achievement of the expansion targets, no heating operation in winter, no battery replacement, no bottlenecks in the expansion of the power grid, no influence of infrastructure development and more. In comparison, the diesel car: without the use of low-CO2 fuels, the diesel drive covers the distance including production with 34.1 tons of CO2 (171 grams of CO2/km) and represents an alternative with potential for improvement.
T&E contrasts this methodically and scientifically verified balance sheet analysis with other data. And thus commits balance sheet fraud. T&E works with an average value approach and thus underestimates the real CO2 values. This error was not pointed out by a small group, as T&E implies. Rather, hundreds of scientists and energy engineers representing the subject area at many universities pointed this out to the EU Commission in 2021. To date, this presentation has not been scientifically contradicted.
For explanation: The electricity mix represents the average CO2 emissions of an electricity system using CO2-favorable wind and photovoltaic systems or coal and gas, for example 380 grams of CO2 per kWh. If 1 kWh less energy were to be withdrawn from the grid, this would result in the amount of CO2 that could actually be saved by an electrical consumer. However, this does not amount to 380 grams of CO2. The wind would not stop blowing with a lower load and the sun would not stop shining. The marginal costs are approximately twice as high as the marginal tax rate is higher than the average tax rate.
With the balance sheet trick of the mean value approach, which T&E uses, one arrives at more favorable emissions from electrical consumers. In the above case, only 29.6 tons of CO2 would be produced, which corresponds to 148 grams of CO2/km. Proponents of the mean value approach, such as T&E, always point to the capping of the EU emissions trading system. However, as the ETS is no longer a pure “cap and trade” system due to feedback mechanisms such as the market stability reserve, this criticism from T&E also falls short. In addition, the values of 75 grams of CO2/km including production listed by T&E cannot be explained for the electricity mix of several EU member states. The CO2 footprint of BEVs is grossly understated here.
To put this into context: for years, international experts – university professors, researchers, recognized scientific societies – have been highly disconcerted by the transparent and vulnerable methods used by T&E. The European umbrella organization of environmental organizations, T&E, together with its national member organizations, including DUH, has considerable financial resources at its disposal. It is estimated that this association has an annual budget of several hundred million euros.
They use this money for questionable lobbying. One example is their campaign against climate-neutral fuels (reFuels = eFuels and bioFuels): Negative headlines are provoked to discredit the concept of reFuels. Fuel production and the results of T&E were not scientifically verifiable. It is repeatedly claimed that eFuels are too expensive and the fact ignored that production costs of €0.8/l to €1.7/l have long been within reach. T&E repeatedly invokes the alleged inefficiency of eFuels in particular. However, companies and scientists have long recognized the potential of production sites with a high wind/solar harvest factor (factor 2-4 above Germany). Financially strong companies are planning or building production capacities for climate-neutral fuels at wind and sun-rich locations in Tierra del Fuego, the USA, Africa or Arabia. Instead of seeing the potential for CO2 savings in transport, T&E continues to run smear campaigns.
Legislators be warned: T&E is in the dubious business of environmental lobbying. Elsewhere in the world, people are not falling for the campaigns: California has decided to replace 100 percent of fossil diesel fuel with reFuels by 2030. Sweden is planning a 60 percent share, while India and Brazil are forging the world’s largest biofuel alliance. In Europe, however, this addition is being hindered. In conclusion, T&E emphasizes that sticking to the combustion engine is a backward-looking position. The highly industrialized world in China, Japan or Korea is preparing efficient combustion engines with low CO2 fuels. Did T&E also miss this message from China in December 2023?
Thomas Koch heads the Institute for Piston Machines at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).