• Energy Research

We thank support from the project "Adaptation to sustainable energy transition in Europe: Environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects (ADAPTAS)'' as part of the funding for this research. (Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness and State Research Agency of Spain, and European Regional Development Fund, No. CSO2017-86975-R). Energy use is the major source of greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this paper is to examine total domestic and foreign energy use across industries in Brazil over the period 1995–2015. We found that total energy use experienced an annual average growth rate close to 3%. In 2015 only three industries accounted for 37% of total energy use in Brazil: Transport, Food & Beverages, and Electricity, Gas, and Water. In these industries the share of the energy used and produced domestically was higher than the average (85.6%, 84.5% and 94.5% of the total, respectively). In contrast, other industries were increasingly reliant on foreign energy. Thus, the share of domestic use of energy produced abroad was higher than 20% in Textiles and Wearing Apparel, Electrical and Machinery, Transport Equipment and Construction. This fact extends the problem of energy-related emissions mitigation from the national to the global level. European Commission CSO2017-86975-R Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness and State Research Agency of Spain CSO2017-86975-R

AbstractClimate change is a major global concern closely related to the strategies aimed at reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency. Over the last decades, the interest in the development of renewable energy (RE) has grown exponentially. In the case of the European Union (EU), the Renewable Energy Directive sets rules to achieve a 32% of total energy consumption to be covered through RE by 2030. In order to achieve this goal, it is important to know what are the main driving factors of RE consumption (REC). This study aims to analyze the impact of economic and social factors on the share of REC in total energy consumption in the EU over the period 2001–2015. For doing so, we estimate a Panel Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) model. The results obtained show that economic factors have a negative effect on REC. In contrast, social factors like education exert a positive effect. This suggests that it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach that includes not only economic but also social aspects in order to foster REC.

Abstract Biomass is a key element within the Europe's Bioeconomy Strategy. This paper aims at contributing to a better knowledge of the evolution and current state of biomass trade in Spain by adopting a raw material equivalent approach. Instead of measuring trade flows in actual physical quantities, this approach expresses international trade flows in terms of the raw material needed to produce the traded products. The results obtained show that while raw material input of biomass increased by 3560 thousand tonnes over the period 2008–2016, raw material consumption decreased by 15,086 thousand tonnes. This is explained by the different pace of growth registered by raw material equivalent of exports and of imports: while raw material equivalent of exports rose from 49,485 thousand tonnes in 2008 to 68,131 thousand tonnes in 2016 recording a double digit growth of 38%, the increase in raw material equivalent of imports was considerably lower: from 64,560 thousand tonnes to 66,106 thousand tonnes, an increase of 2%. By categories, biomass from agriculture was the main driver of overall trade of biomass. Two groupings deserve special mention: fodder crops, which accounted for one quarter of raw material equivalent of exports, and cereals, which represented almost one third of raw material equivalent of imports in 2016.

AbstractIn order to adequately assess energy policies and set clear objectives, a key preliminary step is to know the energy use patterns of the different countries. This paper estimates the evolution of the total energy use over the period 1995–2015 in four European Union (EU) countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, and Spain, representative of two different energy patterns, the “Southern” one and the “Eastern” one. For doing so, we employ a Multi-Regional Input Output (MRIO) model. In difference with previous studies, in addition to differentiate between domestic and foreign use we distinguish whether this energy is produced domestically or abroad. The results obtained show a certain convergence in energy intensity across the four countries examined because of the radical transformations experienced by the Czech Republic and Hungary. Nonetheless, energy intensities are still substantially higher in Eastern than in Southern countries which confirms that the first group of countries have still a long road to go, especially regarding the incentives that their industries have to use energy efficiently. Taking our decomposition of total energy use, the reductions in total energy use were mainly caused by a high decrease in the importance of the domestic use of energy produced domestically. At the same time, a growing importance of the role played by the energy produced abroad was observed. These trends confirm the great importance of global value chains and the steady internalization of energy use. This methodology could be further applied to other countries.