Spain will quickly ratify a global pact aimed at taming climate change, a step which had been delayed by months of political paralysis, Environment Minister Isabel Garcia Tejerina said Friday.

Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's new government, which was sworn in last week, will introduce the agreement in parliament on November 3 so it can be ratified "as soon as possible", she told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.

"Ratification will allow us to participate fully in all the decisions which will start to be adopted" after UN climate talks currently underway in Morocco which Rajoy will attend, she added.

Spain took nearly 10 months to establish a government after two inconclusive general elections and several unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition in a country where the traditional two-party system was shattered by the rise of new political parties.

More than 100 nations representing 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions have inked the historic Paris Agreement, the world's first universal climate pact, which came into force in early November.

But the future of the pact -- which aims to cap global warming at well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and 1.5 Celsius if possible, compared with pre-industrial levels -- is in doubt after Republican Donald Trump's surprise election win in the US.

Climate change denier Trump, who has made no secret of his disregard for the United Nations, pledged earlier this year to withdraw from the Paris climate deal. In contrast, current US President Barack Obama has been a champion of the pact.

Tejerina said she was confident that Washington would not abandon the pact.

"It is a change in the global economy which already is unstoppable, not only by governments, but also by companies. We have to wait and see how the new American administration responds," she added.

Spain is one of the biggest consumers in Europe of fossil fuels. The country also has little or no oil reserves, making it heavily dependent on imported oil.

Oil accounts for half of its energy consumption while natural gas accounts for roughly 20 percent.

The country encouraged the development of renewable energy in the 2000s through generous government subsidies awarded by the previous Socialist government.

But Rajoy, in power since 2011, slashed the subsidises as part of wider austerity measures aimed at reducing a ballooning public deficit.

Spain has the world's fourth biggest wind park after China, the United States and Germany.

Spanish renewable energy group Gamesa last month approved a merger with the wind power division of German engineering giant Siemens which will create a global giant in the sector.

Spain king to visit Saudi with sale of warships on agenda
Madrid (AFP) Nov 11, 2016 - Spain's king will begin his first state visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, with the possible sale of five warships to the oil-rich kingdom on top of the agenda, sparking protests from rights groups.

Felipe VI will be accompanied during his three-day visit by Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis and Public Works Minister Inigo de la Serna.

He was invited to visit by Saudi Arabia's King Salman, who acceded to the Saudi throne in January 2015 following the death of his half-brother Abdullah.

Top-selling Spanish daily newspaper El Pais reported this week that "one of the imperatives of the visit" is the signing of a contract with Spanish ship builder Navantia to build five Avante 2200 corvette patrol vessels for the Saudi navy for over two billion euros ($2.2 billion).

This would be "the biggest contract every signed" by the state-owned firm and would likely guarantee jobs for 2,000 people for five years, the newspaper added.

Contacted by AFP, the royal palace declined to comment on the report.

The ongoing sale of military hardware to Saudi Arabia by Western states has been vociferously criticised by rights groups, who have pointed to the use of such equipment in deadly attacks on civilians in Saudi-led Arab coalition airstrikes in Yemen.

Amnesty International on Friday called on Spain's king to block the sale of the warships to the Saudi navy, arguing they could be used in Yemen to carry out "serious violations of international humanitarian law".

"They are bombing hospitals, public schools, health centres, among other infrastructure full of people," the group's director for Spain, Esteban Beltran, said in a video posted on Twitter.

He called on Felipe to use his influence with King Salman "to stop air attacks on civilians in Yemen".

In January other groups including Greenpeace and Oxfam sent an open letter to the Spanish government opposing the possible sale of the warships to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Huthi rebels overran much of the impoverished country.

Over 7,000 people have been killed -- more than half of them civilians -- in the conflict, while another three million are displaced and some 70 percent of the population needs food aid.