SPAIN: Difficulites for Spain to comply with Kyoto Protocol

According to the Spanish general secretary for the prevention of contamination and climatic change, enterprises and industries are not exceeding the emissions allowed. The industry, for instance, has increased its emissions by less than 40% since 1990, but this is not the case for transport and private households. The general secretary warned about the complexity of controlling millions of vehicles and households, which can not be compared to controlling around 1200 industries. Spain had committed not to raise its emissions by more than 15% between 2008 and 2012 in relation to 1990?s figures. But in 2004 emissions had already raised to 48%, more than three times that limit. This is due to a model of economic growth that is mostly based on activities that consume a lot of energy, such as construction and transport, and to having long abandoned energetic efficiency. Nevertheless, the general secretary stated that the grounds are currently been laid to reverse this trend through a plan of renewable energies and energetic efficiency among other measures. On this matter, the European Commission is about to start an infringement procedure against Spain. www.mma.es/portal/secciones/el_ministerio/estructura/organigrama/secg2.htm