Spain Country Study

Spain’s rapid economic growth over the last ten years has contributed to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions to a level already considerably above the 15% target established within the EU Burden Sharing Agreement, under Article 4 of the Kyoto Protocol. The main issue for Spain is how to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions (and therefore meet its international commitments) without imposing an excessive burden on the economy. Given the significance of energy-related activities in producing these emissions, the focus of most emission reduction efforts should be optimization of energy consumption. However, the outlook for meeting the Kyoto commitments is not optimistic. According to the National Allocation Plan, issued in November 2006, emissions by 2012 would increase by 50% even with the already implemented measures undertaken by Spain’s government. Therefore, despite the adopted policies aimed to reduce GHG emissions in Spain, evidence and projections show the necessity of more and more effective measures not only to achieve Kyoto targets, but to face more aggressive emission reduction commitments in Post Kyoto scheme.