The triple of the burnt area, the less electricity produced from renewable sources and the dependence on foreign energy to resume maximum of 2011: the year 2015 has not been of the most happy in terms of the environment, appearing on the calendar as the sixth driest year since 1931. Worse than that: the emission of greenhouse gases came in at 27.9 million tons of equivalent carbon dioxide, the highest level since 2009.
The statistics of the environment, published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), show that the past year has been "extremely warm and dry" – which, associated to the dynamics of economic activity, has resulted in new pressures on the environment.
A forest is always changing
In terms of the socio-economic context, 2015 was marked by an expansion of economic activity, that found translation practice in the creation of 43 thousand new jobs, and an increase in the volume of private consumption of 2.6%, in addition to an increase of 1.8% in industrial production. The population decrease, on the other hand, exports dropped by for the first time since 2010. And the weather conditions, which "have determined a decrease of the contribution of renewable sources to the primary energy consumption of 25.9% to 22.2% of". In the same way, the electricity produced from renewable sources decreased from 61.4% to 48,7%.
in Addition, in that year burned nearly 65 thousand hectares of forest, more than three times the area burned in 2014, and the municipal waste generated increased by 2.1%.
All combined, the activities covered by the European Trading of Emission Allowances issued 27.9 million tonnes of co2eq (a measure that expresses the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in equivalent terms of the amount of carbon dioxide). It is the highest level of emissions since 2009 and 15.6% higher than the 2014, "due in large part to the behavior of the national energy matrix", it reads in the outline.
THE INE stresses that in the energy sector consumed more primary energy and increased the final energy consumption by economic activities, thereby interrupting the cycle started in 2006 and the successive decrease of the energy consumption. The consumption increases were expandable to all sectors of activity, with the exception of the domestic sector. The result is still far from being encouraging: the dependence on foreign energy has resumed maximum of 2011.
In that waste is concerned, in 2015 every inhabitant in the territory of the national generated average of 464 kilograms of waste, the second highest result in the last five years, totaling 4.8 million tons. Of the 1.6 million tonnes of packaging generated, 59,7% were valued. The selective collection has increased by 21,9%, making up 16.2% of the collection total waste. The industry, for its part, has generated 8.2 million tons of waste, less 16.3% of that in 2014. However, the representativeness of the hazardous waste has increased, standing at 6.4%, the maximum ever recorded.
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