Andalusia, International leader in renewables

Assessment of the territories’ climate action

2019

Association Climate Chance (Climate Chance)

Since 2015, the Climate Chance Association has been involved in the mobilization in the fight against climate change. It is the only international association that proposes to bring together on an equal footing all the non-State actors recognized by the UN. In order to strengthen their action and to give credibility to the climate stabilization scenarios, the Climate Chance Association launched in 2018 a Global Observatory of Non-State Climate Action, which aims to explain the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions, by crossing national public policies, with sectoral dynamics, private actors’ strategies, local public policies, and actions undertaken by the actors of the territory. In 2019, in order to analyse the coherence of local public policies, Climat Chance proposes 13 new case studies of cities and regions. Here, the case of Andalusia.

To download : climate-chance-2019.pdf (1.5 MiB)

Governance and integration of climate policies

Andalusia was the first Spanish autonomous community to adopt an autonomous strategy to combat climate change as early as 2002, which in 2007 was based on the Andalusian Climate Action Plan 2007-2012 (PAAC). This founding plan is still today the cornerstone of Andalusia’s climate policies and has become the climate component of the Andalusian Sustainable Development Strategy 2030, which has set the 2020 and 2030 reduction targets. More recently, the Andalusian Parliament passed Law 8/2018 (in force since January 2019), which provides for the creation of an Interdepartmental Climate Change Commission, a transversal commission in charge of climate planning, as well as the Andalusian Climate Change Office, which will be the administrative unit for the management of mitigation, adaptation and communication policies.

At the level of Andalusian municipalities, the Environment Council of the Junta Andalusia and the Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces have been organizing the Ciudad 21 programme since 2002, which in 2011 will become Ciudad Sostenible. It brings together 291 member municipalities, in which 90% of the Andalusian population lives, which are supported in the implementation of more than 600 urban development projects. Although Andalusia is the region with the highest GHG emissions in Spain, accounting for 14% of GHG emissions, it is also home to nearly 18% of the population (Lavanguardia, 2018).

Monitoring and evaluation of climate policies

According to the Andalusian Council of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, the region’s total GHG emissions decreased by 21.7 per cent between 2005 and 2017. This decrease since 2005 does not compensate for the increase observed in the 1990s, since over the period 1990 - 2015, emissions increased by 40%. The region differentiates its emissions «  non-diffuse ". (RCDE) and subject to the European carbon quota trading system (production of electricity, cement, steel, etc.), «  diffuse  » emissions related to energy use (transport, agriculture, waste).

In 2017 the latter were slightly higher than the former, accounting for 51.7% of total emissions. Transport accounts for 53.3% of these diffuse emissions (27.5% of the total), and has been increasing since 2014. Emissions in 2017 from agriculture are stable at 11% of the total, and waste is decreasing with a 15.5% decrease between 2010-2017 and 4.7% of the total. Nevertheless, the significant decrease in total emissions is due to the decrease in emissions from industry, electricity production and cogeneration, which decreased by 22.7% between 2005 and 2017 (32 MtCO2 to 25 MtCO2).

Energy - A National Leader in Renewable and Demand Reduction

In 2017, renewables accounted for 38.8% of the region’s total electricity production (Agencia de la Energia), half of which is wind energy, followed by photovoltaic and thermodynamic solar energy combined. In 2011, the world’s first thermodynamic power plant will be installed near Seville. Andalusia is now the country’s main producer, with 22 plants and 22.77% of national production, making Spain the world’s leading producer. It is also the national leader in electricity production from biomass, taking advantage of its extensive olive and eucalyptus plantations. In 2012, Ence built, with the help of community subsidies, the largest biomass plant in Spain (50 MW), supplied with its own cellulose production. It supplies 400,000 people with green energy.

The 2020 Renewable Energy Development Programme «  Andalucía es más ", aligned with the Andalusian Energy Strategy 2020, includes 76 measures in 3 parts to reduce energy consumption in SMEs, housing and public administrations.

Savings - Voluntary «  SACE  » Emissions Offset System to Become Mandatory

The Andalusian Emission Compensation System (SACE) was set up by the Environment Council. It is based on voluntary adherence by companies, which then carry out a self-assessment of their emissions using a computer tool made available to companies. This tool distinguishes between several scopes of emissions : direct emissions, those linked to energy consumption, and those indirect emissions upstream or downstream of the company’s activity (e.g. transport of raw materials or finished products). On the basis of the results of the self-assessment, the company, accompanied by the administration, defines a plan to reduce its emissions. Most of them stick to the reduction of first and second range emissions. In the event of failure in the implementation of the reduction plan, companies must set up a project to offset all or part of the unreduced emissions (reforestation projects). Since 2009, the year the plan was implemented, 98 companies have signed up for this program, but no data has yet been collected to measure the effectiveness of this measure.

Adaptation

FUNDING RESEARCH AND NGOS

The Andalusian Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, approved in 2010, the second pillar of the PAAC, has been formulated in four sub-programmes implemented by the different Councils of the Autonomous Community.

The Council of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development is one of the most active in this area. 1,051 million to finance 13 research projects on the adaptation of agriculture to climate change as part of its 2014-2020 Rural Development Plan. In addition to projects on improving water use, the research focuses on the adaptation of the region’s main crops with topics such as biodiversity associated with vineyards, the effect of climate change on olive trees or the management of almond crops.

The council also passed a decree in August 2019 to increase subsidies for forest ecosystem adaptation projects in a territory that has nearly 50% of forest area. For the first time, two associations (Arboretum and Produnas), which carry out adaptation projects, received public funding from the municipality of Marbella. For example : Arboretum is working on the development of urban gardens in Marbella the conservation of 131 species of plants, so-called native to the region.

Sources

To go further