Climate change mitigation - Drivers and pressures (Spain)

SOER 2010 Common environmental theme (Deprecated)

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Topics: Climate change mitigation

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SOER Common environmental theme from Spain

Topic: Climate change

Published: 26 Nov 2010 Modified: 11 May 2020

The key drivers that are related to Spain's contribution to global GHG emissions are a significant population growth and an accelerated process of economic and social development in the country in recent years. As a result of these, the following drivers having a pressure on GHG emissions have also been identified: energy consumption, electricity generation and transport demand.

Final energy consumption by sector

A steady growth in energy consumption has been recorded since 1990, though in 2007 there were a trend change. In 2009 final energy consumption in Spain was 97,776 ktoe, 7.4 % lower than in 2008.

It should be noted that the significant improvement that has been recorded in energy intensity (energy consumption per unit of GDP) between 2004 and 2009 (-14.5 %), can be ascribed to energy efficiency policies and to the increased renewable energy sources in the energy system.

Electricity generation and renewable energy

The trend in energy generation in Spain is characterised by a decrease in the use of coal, oil and nuclear energy and by a rise in the use of natural gas and renewable sources. Electricity generated from renewable sources exceeded electricity produced by nuclear power in 2007 and overtook electricity generated from coal in 2008. In 2009, renewable energy accounted for 24.7 % of the electricity generated in Spain.

Spain has heavily committed to a policy of renewable energy projects and by 2010 the share of renewable in the country is expected to be 12 % of final energy and 30 % of electricity generation, and by 2020, 22 % and 42 % respectively.

Transport

Transport accounts near of 40 % of the total national energy consumption and is one of the main drivers of growth in GHG emissions. Characterised by a modal imbalance, with predominance of road transport (90 % in passenger transport and 83 % in freight transport in 2008) and by the strong demand growth in recent years, transport increase has been favoured by the recorded both population and economy growths. This has led to an intercity passenger transport raise of 94.4 % and also to an increase in transport freight by 86.5 % between 1990 and 2008.

Total GHG emissions

GHG emissions in Spain have seen a significant growth in recent years, in a context of major economic expansion, with increases in GDP above the European average which overflowed the projections made. However, in the last five years there has been a period of stabilisation, and even of decline in 2008, reaching a total of 405,740 kt CO₂-eq (+40 % compared to the base year of the Kyoto Protocol), 7.5 % below the previous year. For 2009 the forecast is a further reduction, overcoming +28.5 % from base year of Kyoto.

The pollutant split reveals that, in 2008, CO₂ accounted for 83.2 % of total emissions. It was followed in terms of volume by CH₄ with 8.9 % and N₂O with 6.2 %. Fluorinated gases contributed just 1.7 % of the total.

SPAIN'S SITUATION WITHIN THE EU IN TERMS OF GHG EMISSIONS IN 2008

In 2008, Spain accounted for 8.2 % of the EU-27 total GHG emissions and was the fifth-biggest contributor.
GHG emissions per inhabitant stood at 8.96 t of CO₂-eq in 2008, which positioned Spain 19^th in the EU-27 ranking. This figure is below the EU-27 and EU-15 averages (9.92 t of CO₂-eq/inhab in the EU-27 and 10.07 t of CO₂-eq/inhab. in the EU-15).
In 2008, Spain was also positioned 18^th in the EU-27 in terms of emissions intensity (measured as the ratio between GHG emissions and GDP): for each unit of GDP (each euro produced), Spain emitted 373 g of CO₂-eq. For each unit of GDP produced in the EU-27, 395 g of CO₂-eq were emitted, while in the EU-15 this volume stood at345 g of CO₂-eq.

Source: EEA greenhouse gas data viewer (http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/PivotApp/pivot.aspx?pivotid=475)

GHG emissions by sector

Energy processing (including transport) generates a significant proportion of emissions, followed by agriculture, industrial processes, waste treatment and disposal and, finally, solvent use. The contribution made by energy processing and waste treatment has increased since 1990, while that made by the other sectors has stabilised or diminished.