Spain reduces its CO ₂ emissions by 1.6% in 2018 while globally they rise by 2%

Good news for Spain: not only are we managing to reduce our environmental impact but, in fact, we have managed to reverse the trend at a global level, which has been negative. This is evidenced by the report ‘Statistical Review of World Energy 2019’, prepared annually by BP, one of the reference publications in the world energy markets.

Our country reduced its CO2 emissions by 1.6% in 2018, just after having grown the previous year at the highest rate in five years. Thus, we dissociate ourselves from the negative data recorded worldwide. There are several factors that explain this drop. In the first place, the high hydraulics: after a 2017 marked by the drought that caused a collapse in the production of hydroelectric energy, the rainfall of 2018 pushed the consumption of this type of energy by 87.4%, going on to represent 5.6% of the total primary energy consumed.

This circumstance also caused the consumption of coal, which in 2017 had to ‘replace’ hydroelectric energy, to fall by 17.3% in 2018. On the other hand, gas (-0.8%) and nuclear energy (-4.3%) also fell, while oil and renewables were the only sources that, after growing in 2017, did so again in 2018, with 2.6% and 1.7% respectively.

With this panorama, the ‘mix’ of energy consumption was once again dominated by oil (47.13%), well above gas (19.14%), renewables (11.32%), nuclear energy (8.91%), coal (7.87%) and hydraulic energy (5.63%). In any case, the reduction of emissions at the national level becomes more important if we take into account that primary energy consumption in Spain grew by 1.8% compared to 2017, an upward trend that has been repeated since 2015.

Why have they risen globally?
If Spain is the side of the coin, the world figures are the cross: while our country managed to reduce its CO2 emissions, the truth is that globally they have grown by 2%. For Luis Aires, president of BP Spain, “the global data point to a growing mismatch between society’s demand for action on climate change and the pace at which we are actually progressing. We are facing an unsustainable path, in which both energy demand and carbon emissions grow at a higher rate than in previous years,” he said in the presentation of the ‘Statistical Review of World Energy 2019’, which was attended by former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Energy demand grew by 2.9% in 2018, almost double the average experienced in the last decade (1.7%). There are factors that explain this increase worldwide, including the existence of more extreme weather conditions, and the rebound in China of the most energy-intensive industrial activities, in particular, iron and steel. As well as the increase in coal consumption, the most pronounced in the last five years, both in consumption rates (1.4%) and in production rates (4.3%).

On the other hand, we must look at renewables: despite growing by 14.5% worldwide in 2018, this increase is slightly lower than in recent years. In addition, there are other energy sources that, despite having a negative impact on the production of emissions, remained constant.

However, despite efforts to replace coal with cleaner fuels with lower carbon emissions, the truth is that the global electricity generation mix remains flat and the contribution of different fuels to the global electricity system remains unchanged compared to its levels of 20 years ago.

“In this scenario, it is necessary to bet on an adequate combination of the energy mix to walk towards a sustainable transition,” concludes Luis Aires. And, for BP, “the data of 2018 draw a worrying picture”, with which “it is evident the importance of taking into account all types of energy and developing a series of technologies, as well as working on greater energy efficiency that ensures returning to a path of sustainable growth”.

Source: The Confidential