SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 2 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands opens from today, Monday, the period for the owners of buildings intended for tourist accommodation on the islands or the companies that operate them to request aid to finance energy efficiency and economy projects circular.
This new call for subsidies, charged to the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism of the NextGenerationEU funds, has a budget of 15,938,265 euros and a deadline for submitting applications by accommodation establishments until December 31, 2024, always and when funds are available, since in order to streamline the process, the management of these aids will be carried out by non-competitive competition, so that the applications will be attended in order of entry until the credit is exhausted.
The Minister of Tourism, Yaiza Castilla, wanted to recall that the decarbonisation of tourism activity “is a main strategic objective for the Canary Islands destination and, furthermore, the only way to continue being one of the most appreciated destinations in Europe”.
Hence the recent signing of the agreement to adhere to the Glasgow commitment, sponsored by the United Nations Organization (UN), by the public and private tourism entities of the archipelago and led by Turismo de Canarias, and by which those who They signed a commitment to reduce carbon emissions from tourism by 50% by the year 2030 and to eliminate them completely as soon as possible, and always before 2050.
For this trip to decarbonization, and among other measures, the head of Tourism said that as they promised, they will accompany the private sector by providing financing through different lines of subsidies, such as these that are being called now.
The objective of the call is to grant this aid to at least 255 hotels and non-hotel establishments (apartment, villa, emblematic house, rural house and vacation home), which must be registered in the General Tourist Registry.
The projects to be financed with these aids must guarantee a reduction in the consumption of non-renewable primary energy of at least 30% over the starting situation.
Eligible actions
In this sense and in accordance with the bases of the call, the renovation of existing buildings for tourist accommodation, which favor the reduction of final energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, through energy savings, improvement of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies and the circular economy.
Specifically, eligible actions will be the improvement of the energy efficiency of the thermal envelope so as to achieve a reduction in the energy demand for air conditioning and heating of the building, through conventional construction actions (exterior carpentry, facades, solar protection, etc.) and unconventional or bioclimatic architecture (shading systems, natural ventilation, walls facing the sun) on its thermal envelope.
Likewise, actions to improve energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in thermal installations for air conditioning, refrigeration, heating, ventilation and sanitary hot water will be eligible; and improving the energy efficiency of lighting installations (from more efficient lamps to remote or automatic control systems for lighting on and off in buildings or installations such as awnings, blinds or curtains in the building, which allow the optimal use of sunlight, among others).
The Ministry of Tourism, through its Provisional Administrative Unit (UAP) for the management of NextGeneration EU funds, has planned different measures to facilitate access to these aids for companies. This is how the award procedure has been designed with the aim of facilitating the submission of applications and expediting the deadlines for granting the subsidy, making it completely telematic.
On the other hand, an information day has been planned on each island to disseminate the technical issues of this process and a technical office has been set up to attend to queries, both in administrative matters and in telematic incidents.
Finally, Yaiza Castilla announced that these aids will shortly be extended to non-accommodation tourist companies, through the corresponding call, and for which nine million euros are planned.
