Spain will waste €300 million by putting the clocks back by one hour

ON October 30, Spain will waste €300 million by putting the clocks back by one hour according to calculations by the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE).

By abandoning this move from Summer Time to Winter Time, the evenings (when people are more active) would remain lighter for one hour and could ensure a reduction in energy consumption of around 5 per cent.

In theory the decision to introduce Summer Time was to give more light to farmers at the height of their sowing and harvesting times but there are two interesting facts about Spain, as during the Civil War, both sides observed different time zones and even today, the Canary Islands are one hour behind the rest of Spain.

Well before the current energy crisis, the European Union had studied the time changes and in 2018, the European Parliament voted to give each country the right to decide if it wished to continue to change time zones twice a year.

With Spain championing a green energy revolution, investing billions in subsidising energy costs and currently rumoured to be about to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), which protects investments in fossil fuels and other energy infrastructure, a simple decision to stay in Summer Time would be another way of saving energy.

There is a move in Italy to take the same action and a petition on website change.org which concentrates on the Spanish situation already has nearly 250,000 signatures.

There is also a health issue as according to US medical research, the number of people suffering heart attacks on the day following the start of Summer Time can jump by 25 per cent compared to other Mondays in the year.

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