Interestingly, after the outbreak of the subprime economic crisis in 2007, eight years of continuous cuts in greenhouse gas emissions followed. The percentage came to be reduced by 40 points from that year to 2014, when CO2 expulsion was 14% higher than in 1990, the base year agreed in the Kyoto Protocol. The signatories of the agreement had promised that their emissions would not exceed 15% of those of 1990.
For the first time in twenty years, Spain remained below that threshold agreed on at that summit. According to the 2016 estimates from the Observatory for Sustainability, greenhouse gases expelled into the atmosphere are 3,13% lower than the previous year.
The report presented by the agency, which is ahead of official data by one year, highlights the contribution of renewable energies, which last year covered a 40,8% of electricity generation and they are gaining ground to coal.
The indiscriminate burning of coal for electricity generation decreased by about 30,6% in 2016, while oil and natural gas consumption grew by 3% and 1,4%, respectively. Regarding the renewableWind power contributed 19,3%, hydropower 14,6%, photovoltaic 3,1% and solar thermal 2,1%.
Despite this progressive change, the observatory acknowledges that "it is difficult to assess" whether the reduction in emissions last year was due to decrease in consumption of coal or is the result of "the few strategies and policies launched in recent years by the executive of Mariano Rajoy ”.
Reduces greenhouse gas emissions
The reduction in CO2 in the transport sector could be due, according to the institute's report, to the increase in fuel prices and the reduction of labor and merchandise movements due to the crisis. The observatory, however, also points to municipal policies to “less polluting media”For communications, such as communication systems bike rental and light meters among others.
Unfortunately, the decrease in greenhouse gas levels since 2007 is still not enough for Spain to stop being one of the industrialized countries “where more have increased greenhouse gas emissions " since 1990. The observatory warns that the country “continues to need a important effort for the stage after the Kyoto Protocol ”.
The sixth warmest year in half a century
The observatory report states that the 2016 report was a "very warm" year, with an average temperature of 15,8 degrees that exceeds normal by 0,7ºC. The anomalies exceeded a degree of difference in some points of the Mediterranean coast and the Pyrenees, with a month of January that turned out to be the hottest since the beginning of the series in 1965.
After a spring with more normal values, reducing the average by 0,5ºC less, the summer was again extremely warm, the third with the highest records in 50 years. Autumn was also above normal values, with average temperatures being 1,4ºC above normal in September and 1,5ºC in October. Thermometers also registered higher values in December, with an average of 0,6ºC above the usual records.
The data collected leaves 2016 as the sixth warmest year since the start of the series in 1965 and the fifth warmest so far this century. The highest records were collected at the Córdoba Airport observatory on September 6, where the mercury stood at 45,4ºC. Seville and Murcia airports reached 44,8ºC and 44,6ºC, respectively, one day before. The observatory points out that in many observatories in the southern half of the peninsula, as well as in some stations in the interior of Galicia, the maximum temperatures were above 40ºC throughout the summer.
An analysis of the World Meteorological Organization OMM ranks 2016 as the hottest since temperatures are recorded. "Long-term indicators of climate change man-made they reached new highs in 2016, "advanced WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. "Methane and CO2 concentrations increased exponentially until reaching new highs. Both contribute to climate change ”, he concluded.
