Spain: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fell 6.2% Last Year

Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Spanish acronym: MITECO) has published the advance report of the Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGE) corresponding to 2019.

These preliminary data, which Spain is obliged to send to the European Commission each year, estimate that gross emissions of CO2 equivalent amounted to 313.5 million tonnes last year, a drop of 6.2% on 2018.

These preliminary data show that CO2 equivalent emissions have recorded a global drop in 2019, despite being a dry year, with a decline in hydraulic production of 27.6%, and in an economically favourable context, with GDP growth of 2%, which shows a decoupling of emissions vis-à-vis economic growth.

Transport remains, as in previous years, the biggest emitting sector, amounting in 2019 to 29% of emissions in CO2 equivalent terms, followed by industry (20.6%), the generation of electricity (13.5%), crop and livestock farming (12.5%), the consumption of fuels in residential, commercial and institutional sector (8.8%) and waste (4.3%).

Emissions from installations subject to the European System of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) fell in 2019 by 14% on the previous year and emissions from diffuse sectors by 1.6%; however, those from domestic aviation rose by 7.4%.