Between 2008 and 2011 Ribera held the position of Secretary of State for Climate Change in the second administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

[8] In September 2013, she began to collaborate with the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), based in Paris, and in June 2014 she assumed its direction.

The organization is dedicated to the analysis of strategic issues related to sustainable development, climate change, protection of biodiversity, food security and management of the urbanization process.

[19] In a letter sent to their counterparts in the European Commission – Miguel Arias Cañete and Pierre Moscovici – in May 2019, Ribera and Budget Minister María Jesús Montero called on the European Union to assess a potential carbon tax on power imports to protect the bloc’s interests and help it to pursue its environmental targets amid growing public concern over climate change.

[20] Under Ribera's leadership, the Spanish government stepped in to host the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference after riots over inequality prompted Chile to withdraw with just one month’s notice.

[25] In April 2020, the Prime Minister commissioned Ribera to carry out the plan to ease the lockdown, that is, the way in which the country would exit the State of Alarm activated due to the COVID-19 viral pandemic.

[30][31] On 15 December 2020, Ribera was one of the first European ministers to declare that if it was not possible to make the Energy Charter Treaty compatible with the Paris Agreement, there would be no choice but to withdraw from it.

[37][38] During her hearings for her commissioner’s role, the European People's Party questioned Ribera over the management of the disastrous flash floods of October in Valencia, accusing her of ignoring the needs to update, drain and improve the Rambla del Poyo as the head of the Ministry of Environment.

[41] She said in an interview with El Pais: "Ursula Von der Leyen has given me a vice presidency: It's a signal that [the green agenda] remains a priority.