Most important environmental issues in Spain 2020

According to the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos in March 2020, almost 40 percent of Spaniards believed that global warming or climate change is one of the top three environmental issues facing Spain, followed by waste management (36 percent) and air pollution (33 percent). By contrast, only five percent of respondents believe soil erosion to be a top three environmental issue.

CO2 emission curbs in Spain

There is no denial of the fact that global warming is happening in front of our eyes: ice sheets in the Arctic are melting and the extreme weather events becomes more and more unpredictable shifting. Many countries are trying to react and have set ambitious plans in order to reduce CO2 emissions before it’s too late. Spain, for example, has reduced its CO2 emissions over the recent years from approximately 379 million metric tons of CO2 down to roughly 279 million metric tons in 2019. In the European context, Germany was the biggest polluter, with its CO2 emissions amounting to 641.6 metric tons in 2018.

Greenhouse emissions in Spain

Despite managing to cut greenhouse gas emissions produced as a result of energy generation, the energy sector is still responsible for most of the emissions in Spain. For example, in 2017, the sector generated the equivalent of 259 million tons of CO2. Other sectors such as manufacturing and construction, and agriculture were responsible for the generation of 43.5 and 39.5 million tons of CO2 equivalents respectively.