Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 4. Case Study: Spain 219
baseline emission scenarios, the marginal abatement cost curves and the
starting-point (2010) emissions. In particular for Spain, the choice of the starting
point emissions (either the Kyoto targets (as assumed here), or the baseline
emissions) can significantly affect Spain’s 2020 targets even more than the
regime or the agreed EU reduction objective 1 . Therefore care must be taken in
interpreting the conclusions with respect to regimes on the basis of the
quantitative outcomes presented.
3.3.3.2 Implications on Spain of EC’s effort sharing proposal (January 2008)
On January 2007 the European Commission (EC) adopted an energy and
climate change package, which included:
- an independent EU commitment to achieve a reduction of at least 20% in
the emission of greenhouse gases by 2020 compared to 1990 levels and
the objective of a 30% reduction by 2020, subject to the conclusion of a
comprehensive international climate change agreement;
- a mandatory EU target of 20% renewable energy (RES) by 2020 including
a 10% biofuels target.
On 23 rd January 2008, the EC proposed a set of key policy proposals that are
closely interlinked, including how efforts could be shared among Member
States to achieve these targets.
The energy and climate change package can be implemented in different
ways. The GHG reduction commitments for the EU ETS, sectors not covered by
the EU ETS and the RES targets would be allocated ex ante on a cost efficient
way; but this would imply disproportionate costs for the Member States with a
GDP per capita below EU average.
1 As Spain is far from achieving its Kyoto target, to assume that in 2010 its emissions will be at the
Kyoto target level (+15% compared to 1990) would be unrealistic. This could be overcome by choosing a
different base year than 1990, such as the one used in the Commission’s proposal – year 2005.
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008