Spain | What does carbon footprint tell us?

Human economic activity generates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that change climate and hurt biodiversity, affecting the well-being of society and the free-market system to the most limited extent.

Key points

• Key points:
• In Spain, the National Statistics Institute (INE) has reported that GHG emissions rose by 3.1% in 2022 (CO2 emissions by 4.5%), driven by economic recovery and a deterioration of the energy mix.
• The breakdown between emissions generated directly by the activity of productive sectors and those generated by households and their private vehicles was ¾ and ¼, respectively, with growth in emissions of 3.5% and 1.8%, respectively.
• By sector, air transport contributed significantly to the growth in GHG emissions, increasing its emissions by 60% in 2022 after pre-pandemic tourism patterns resumed.
• Large emitter sectors, such as energy and refining, also saw increases in emissions as a consequence of higher demand for energy. However, they are still below pre-pandemic emission levels, and the long-term trend is still toward improvements in efficiency (with a reduction in emissions per unit of GDP). The decoupling of economic growth and emissions is crucial for decarbonization.
• Taking the best possible measure of carbon footprints and their impact, public policies can be drawn up, tested and improved by pricing emissions in accordance with their costs to society, internalizing the use of the atmosphere as a GHG warehouse, and incorporating a redistribution component to compensate the most vulnerable.

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