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This paper explores whether the changes in energy intensity in Spain have led to improvements in the energy consumption levels or to a backfire effect offsetting the expected decrease. Jevon's paradox or backfire effect happens when a rebound higher than 100% causes energy efficiency improvement to raise energy consumption. To test Jevon's paradox or the backfire effect caused by energy efficiency actions, a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index I (LMDI-I) is used for the Spanish economy. The period under consideration ranges from 2000 to 2015, when three national action plans were implemented. The main methodological novelty of this paper consists on to block the economic activity effect in a second decomposition round to better explore the effect of energy efficiency on energy consumption. As a whole, our results do not support Jevon's paradox for the sectors analyzed. However, they do warn about a possible backfire effect in the industry, transport and service sectors. Major findings follow these same findings when the activity effect is blocked.

Proyecto RTI2018-096725-B-100, financiado por: FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Ministerio de Universidades – Agencia Estatal de Investigación Urban mining by recyclers represents a positive environmental impact as well as being part of the waste management chain. This paper analyzes the contribution of waste pickers in the city of Cuenca in Ecuador and the conditions of their activity. This research has a two-fold objective. First, it calculates the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the substitution of virgin raw material in the production process by using recycled urban waste. The second objective is to conduct a socioeconomic analysis of the workers involved in the urban waste sector. Cuenca (Ecuador) is the main city used for this case study, thanks to the accessibility of a rich database built from the survey conducted by the NGO Alliance for Development. The information contained in this survey facilitates the identification of potential consumers of the waste industry. This study uses Clean Development Mechanism methodology. Finally, this work proposes a theoretical model for solid waste management, applied to the city, following the principles of the circular economy. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Ministerio de Universidades RTI2018-096725-B-100

The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic and environmental aspects of installing PV facilities for residential electricity users. This paper explores, in a conservative approach, the installation of a PV capacity to compensate the consumption with the production for each moment, never feeding electricity into the utility network and without storage. The approach proposed is illustrated by applying different power PV capacities in alternative locations (Marseille, Madrid and Seville), using the hourly demand provided for the smart meters. Combining the load curve of each user, the irradiation and PV production of each location, the cost of equipments, the hourly emission in the whole market, the variable price of electricity for residential users and the energy needs to build a PV facility. The model calculates, for each individual the optimal PV power to install and the emissions avoided. The results show that, with the current cost of the PV facilities and variable prices of electricity, the PV are, from an economic and environmental point of view, profitable in all the locations analyzed. This initiative will be more profitable for private investors and, additionally, for the environment in the next three years. A massive installation of these facilities in Spain and France will contribute to achieving their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of the Paris agreement (COP-21), fulfilling, in Spain, the current legal restrictions.

A decoupling elasticity analysis and a two-level decomposition analysis of energy consumption in Colombia from 2000 to 2015 are developed. Firstly, the decoupling elasticity approach is used to analyse the importance of energy consumption changes in relation to the GDP changes. Then, a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index analysis is carried out, decomposing the changes in energy consumption into four effects: Population, Activity, Structural and Intensity. Secondly, a decoupling index determines the main drivers of the inhibiting effect on energy consumption. The results show that the Population and Activity effects contribute to the country's increase of energy consumption, while the Intensity effect and, to a lesser extent, the Structure effect help to decrease it. From a sectoral perspective, variations in the energy consumption are mainly caused by the Transport and Industrial sectors. In the light of the results obtained, current decoupling-oriented measures are steps in the right direction, but more efforts should be made because until now they have not been effective. New policy recommendations are provided.

This paper offers systematic and innovative information to the usage of electrical vehicles (EVs) in Spain between 2007 and 2012. Five different EV categories are analyzed. The data is broken down by provinces and regions. Likewise, the study analyzes the evolution of EV use as well as the percentage of EVs in each category with regards to the total number of vehicles in a given category, with the percentage of EVs per 10,000 habitants. In addition to this, the paper provides detailed information about the legislation promoting the use of EVs, both in the European Union (EU) and in Spain. The article includes an assessment of the promotional measured used for EVs for their growth rate. Finally, the authors provide a number of recommendations about the type of efforts to be undertaken by the authorities of Spain and the EU to increase the use of EVs. In Spain, the development of the electrical vehicle stock has increased annually for each of the categories. Nevertheless, the relationship with the total number of vehicles, EVs have failed to reach 1% in any of the categories. The ratio number of EVs per 10,000 inhabitants has increased in each of the provinces, with more than twenty provinces (44%) having a ratio that surpassed 1 EV/10,000 inhabitants in 2012.

In this study, an Index Decomposition Analysis-Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (IDA-LMDI) model was developed to find the drivers behind the changes in CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2012 in Colombia. The results facilitate the assessment of the impact in Colombia of the main measures regarding the mitigation of CO2 emissions. Likewise, it allows us to analyze whether the recent measures implemented by the Colombian authorities to mitigate emissions are moving in the right direction. To carry out the decomposition analysis, six effects were taken into consideration: carbonization, the substitution of fossil fuels, the penetration of renewable energy, energy intensity, wealth and population. The effects of income and population appear as drivers of emissions for the period analyzed. A stylized analysis allows richer conclusions to be extracted regarding a battery of recommendations for emission mitigation policies that are compatible with economic growth in Colombia.

This paper evaluates two smart energy management models for the Spanish electricity system in terms of power consumption savings, CO2 emissions, and dependence upon primary energy from abroad. We compare a baseline scenario with two alternatives. The first model entails the reduction of the power demand through energy savings measures, smart meters, and self-supply. The second model entails the application of all measures included in first scenario, plus measures oriented to electric vehicles. For each model a sensitivity analysis was performed. Results show that both models can result in reductions of peak loads, CO2 emissions, and energy dependence.

This paper quantitatively evaluates the performance of Chile's CO2 emissions between 1991 and 2013 using a ‘complete decomposition’ technique to examine emissions and their components. A decomposition analysis based on log-mean divisia index method (LMDI I) was conducted. Six decomposition factors were considered: Carbon Intensity effect (CI), RES penetration effect (RES), Energy Intensity effect (EI), Economy Structure effect (ES), Income effect (Yp) and Population effect (P). To know how these factors could influence each other in the future, the Innovative Accounting Approach (IAA) was used, including forecast error variance decomposition and Impulse Response Functions (IRFs). These two methodologies allow us to identify the drivers of CO2 emission changes in the past (1991–2013), test policy measures and learn how these drivers could influence each other in the future, to evaluate whether the current measures meet the Paris commitments. The LMDI analysis results show that the Energy Intensity Factor is the main compensating factor of Chile's CO2 emissions and the only effect with a clear trend to aid the economy's decoupling. IAA and IFRs results react similarly and confirm that carbon intensity reacts to shocks more significantly in the short term. The reaction to RES has the same and opposite behavior to shocks in ES and Yp, to disappear in the long term.

Structural improvements in aircraft design, seeking to improve energy efficiency, can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by reducing reduced fuel consumption. This research reviews improvements with the introduction of a structural component known as "winglet;" these are positioned at the top of the aircraft wing, and increased Airbus Group A320 sales. Data used are taken from air traffic in Spain for the 2010–2014 period with projections being made for 2020. The results show that winglets reduce CO2 equivalent emissions associated with Spain's air transport for the 2015–2020 period between 66.29 and 59.56 Gg. depending on the scenario considered in 2020. Junta de Andalucía proyecto SEJ-132 Fundación Roger Torné, Universidad de Sevilla, Cátedra de Economía de la Energía y del Medio Ambiente 1394/0103 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España ECO2014-56399-R Universidad Autónoma de Chile

Higher levels of ozone in the troposphere is a severe threat to both environment and human health. Many countries are concerned about the effects that critical levels of ozone have on them. Countries pollute to satisfy their domestic and external demand (production perspective) and, at the same time, these countries also generate emissions abroad indirectly via their imports and via their domestic production (consumption perspective). Spain is one of the EU countries with the highest pollution records in the emissions of tropospheric ozone precursor gases. A multiregional input-output model (MRIO) allows us to analyze the total emissions embodied in Spanish international trade in 35 sectors within the EU area and the rest of the world. MRIO models, are commonly chosen as they provide an appropriate methodological framework for complete emissions footprint estimates at the national and supranational level The results show that the most polluting sectors involved in Spanish trade are Agriculture, Basic Metals, Coke and Refined Petroleum Production. Some policy recommendations follow these results; for example, a higher number of environmental regulations focused on the Agricultural sector, such as the introduction of codes of good practices in the use of fertilizers and the promotion of cleaner production technologies might lead to less burden to the environment.

A set of 17-year panel data (1996&ndash, 2013) across a representative sample from eighteen Latin American countries is used to respond four research questions: Did Latin American Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions prove the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis? Did the quality of institutions play a compensating role for income on environmental stress? Did technological progress help decouple income from environmental stress? Has the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) been proven? In order to answer the research questions, the paper expands the traditional EKC approach by including an exclusive quality analysis of institutions, technological progress, and PHH as part of the model. This innovation is developed considering the most recent literature about EKC as a starting point. Major findings show that the relationship between income and GHG emissions is adjusted to the traditional EKC hypothesis for the analyzed period. They also show that the quality of institutions and technological progress improve environmental sustainability. However, the variables, Foreign Direct Investment and International Trade, provide a negative answer to the fourth question. The main methodological contribution of this paper is to use a threefold extended classic EKC model to conduct the feasible generalized least squares method. The paper also contributes to the growing body of PHH literature.

The paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of replacing residential use of wood burning stoves for heating with photovoltaic systems for the generation of electricity using storage batteries (PV + storage systems). The research focuses on the city of Temuco (Southern Chile) as a case study, since this city has a high use of firewood for heating (80% of households) and also because this city has been declared by authorities as an area saturated with suspended particles. The total cost corresponds to the acquisition of systems. The reduction of monetary value of the impact of polluting emissions, resulting from the combustion of firewood, on health and traffic accidents is calculated. The interactive tool GDB Compare has been used to calculate the impact of pollution on health both in terms of attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life years. The monetary value of the impact on health has been calculated using two alternative approaches: the value of statistical life and the human capital approach. To identify firewood use requirements, heating degree&ndash, days has been used for temperatures &le, 15 &deg, C and &le, 18 &deg, C. The emissions avoided calculations have been refined, including emissions associated with the manufacture and transport of systems through the life cycle analysis. For all scenarios, the main results show that the savings outweigh the costs.

The Spanish wholesale electricity market remains controversial due to the suspicion of there being collusive behaviour, as the main generation companies still share 55% of the wholesale market. Up to 2018, the Spanish National Competition Authority had to investigate all the complaints received, contributing to discouraging collusive behaviours in the electricity market but also employing a significant amount of resources. Since 2018, the ECN + Directive has given more independence to the National Competition Authorities of EU Member States and has allowed them to reject the complaints that are not considered a priority and choose the most relevant ones. This paper provides a tool that makes the supervision of the wholesale electricity market easier and enables a better use of resources. The tool is tested for a timespan including the same month (December) from 2012 to 2017. The period selected starts once non-conventional renewable technologies began to operate and lasts until the ECN + Directive came into force. In the first two steps, the tool allows a screening of the timespan, looking for possible anomaly periods based on the variance values of the daily electricity cost and the average monthly value. Secondly, the third tool step presents a methodology based on a spatial LMDI-I decomposition analysis. This approach allows analysing the key driver effects that explain the differences between the daily cost of electricity of some technologies and the monthly average of those periods pointed out in the two previous steps. To ensure robustness, the same approach has been tested on control periods prior to and after the anomaly month.

Despite its environmental benefits, the amount of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in use within the European Union 28 is still very limited. Poor penetration might be explained by certain factors that dissuade potential buyers. To balance these factors and promote electro-mobility, Member States have established incentives to increase demand. However, the various measures are scattered. This paper contributes to fill the gap in the literature by offering an overall view of the main measures. The authors will focus on measures to promote electro-mobility within the EU28 until 2014. After an in-depth and comprehensive review of the relevant measures, the authors conclude that the most important policy instruments to promote EVs are tax and infrastructure measures in addition to financial incentives for purchasing and supporting R&amp, D projects. Regardless of the scarcity of EV registration data, the available information allows us to conclude that higher EV penetration levels appear in countries where the registration tax, the ownership tax, or both taxes have developed a partial green tax by including CO2 emissions in the calculation of the final invoice.

This paper assesses the role of the forestry sector in the CO2-eq emissions change in Chile from 1990 to 2013. Due to its relevance, this sector is considered as a proxy LULUCF activities. A second objective of this paper is to explore whether the forest

The aim of this paper is the analysis of structural decomposition of changes in CO2 emissions in Spain by using an enhanced Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA) supported by detailed Input–Output tables from the World Input–Output Database (2013) (WIOD) for the period 1995–2009. The decomposition of changes in CO2 emissions at sectoral level are broken down into six effects: carbonization, energy intensity, technology, structural demand, consumption pattern and scale. The results are interesting, not only for researchers but also for utility companies and policy-makers as soon as past and current political mitigation measures are analyzed in line with such results. The results allow us to conclude that the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol together with European Directives related to the promotion of RES seem to have a positive impact on CO2 emissions trends in Spain. After reviewing the current mitigation measures in Spain, one policy recommendation is suggested to avoid the rebound effect and to enhance the fight against Climate Change that is tax benefits for those companies that prove reductions in their energy intensity ratios. Junta de Andalucía SEJ 132 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ECO2014-56399-R Ministerio de Educación (Chile) 018/FONDECYT/16