23 March 2022
Bilbao Campus
"The Basque Country has to work to make a decarbonised, digital and sustainable industry become the driving force of the Basque economy". This statement by the Basque Government's Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, sums up the Deusto Engineering Breakfast on "The Basque industry and the challenge of sustainability. A historic moment", held on Wednesday, 23rd, at the University of Deusto.
With a large representation of business and media at the event, Arantxa Tapia stressed that "there is still a lot of work to be done" to achieve the goal of a "more efficient industry". In this sense, she added that "in the Basque Government we have the will and investments prepared for this". During the debate, the Basque councillor advocated being honest "with ourselves" and not getting into the contradiction "of being leaders, for example, in the development and manufacture of wind power equipment and not wanting wind farms".
Manuel Ángel Alonso, Telefónica's regional director, also took part in the conference, arguing that sustainability "is a key element in competitiveness" and that Telefónica has set itself the target of achieving zero emissions "in its main operators (Spain, United Kingdom, Germany and Brazil)" by 2025. At the same time, he pointed out that the implementation of telecommunications infrastructures such as fibre and 5G has led to a significant reduction in consumption. Regarding the advantages that digitisation and the use of the services that can be derived from it (Big Data, IoT, or Artificial Intelligence, among others), he pointed out that this has enabled customers supported by Telefónica to reduce their carbon footprint by 8.7 million tonnes, "which is equivalent to 143 million trees".
Also, Marta Álvarez, Director of Competitiveness and Innovation at IDOM Engineering, said that competitiveness and sustainability "are compatible factors". She also stated that "green" financing of projects including "digitalisation, sustainability and decarbonisation" is increasing and will continue to grow until 2030, which is a great opportunity to seize.
Elías Unzueta, Director of Innovation at Petronor, stressed that his company, one of the main subsidiaries of the Repsol group, has known how to reinvent itself since its creation and that 35% of its investments are directed "towards low-carbon or decarbonised energy solutions and that 30% of the energy it generates "is renewable". In his opinion, digitisation is essential and this requires the training of digital profiles.
