It's proof that the industry has had a major negative impact on their economy and undoubtedly makes up a substantial portion of their unemployment rate, however it does not prove, nor is it in any reality, the only reason for their high unemployment rate. It does not disprove that what Caldaza reports is true.
Of course it does! The majority of Spanish unemployment is due to the crash in the building industry... that means over 50% of the total unemployment. There is no doubt about this, as every economist and news source agree on this, even the OECD and World Bank.
In Spain the nr. 1 industry is Tourism, followed until the crash, by construction of new homes/buildings. When the nr 2 industry collapses then it will account for a large part of the unemployment... it is freaking logic.
As for Gabriel Calzada. He is a so called "libertarian" aka a conservative and his report must be taken in that context. His report says that the Spanish investment in green technology has cost 110.000 jobs in "other industries". What he bases this on is known only to him it seems. In total there are over 40 million people in Spain and the unemployed at the moment is 4 million. 110.000 jobs out of 4 million is not by any mathematical standard "a huge part".. not even close.
But what he some what correctly states is the "eco corruption"
Corruption can be very bad. However far far far more jobs have been lost due to corruption in the building industry than anything else. Building license corruption has cost over 1 billion euros in damage to the local county of Marbella.. the Spanish version of Monte Carlo.. basically where all the uber rich go to play. Corruption in local government during the last 10 to 20 years has in part lead to the over reliance on the construction sector in Spain, since it has basically been a free for all drunk building spree where no consideration was made towards planning laws and the law in many popular areas of Spain. This corruption is now coming home to roost, with 40000+ homes in the above county of Marbella being tagged for demolition due to being illegal. And Marbella is not that big a county, population wise..
So Mr Gabriel Calzada can take his views and put them into the context of reality. I bet he is more pissed over that his conservative party has not had a chance in hell of gaining political power in Spain since the Madrid bombings and that it is the socialist (regrettably) that are getting the praise for getting industries to invest so much in alternative energy. Like it or not it is not cheap to be a the forefront of next generation alternative energy, but the cost savings for Spain in the short, medium and long run have the potential to be huge. Just imagine if half of the US energy production was from alternative energy .. imagine the amount of money saved on buying oil?!
Spain's problem is in part that it is still recovering from the Franco regime. People over 40 basically dont have the educational level expected of most employers today, and this especially goes for women who were discouraged from high education under Franco. Many of the "old ways" and laws from the Franco era are still being used and they are highly ineffective but they are also part of life here. It takes time for things to change and in the mean time those ways are costing far far more jobs than any alternative energy investment ever will do.
Spain has had systemic unemployment problem since Franco (and before) due to the laws and attitudes. For one, Spain's economic growth has been one of the highest in the western world, far far over that of the US, and yet it has a near constant 6 to 10% unemployment for decades.
So I think Gabriel Calzada should focus on such things instead of criticizing one of the good projects in Spain. Where is his criticizing of the construction industry or the telecommunications industry? Or why is he not after the conservative politicians that have cost so many jobs due to their corruption?
But I just found the report on the net and when I get time I will read it, but on the face of things stuff does not add up with the comments by Mr Calzada as reported by posters on these boards.