The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2014.07.020
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Summary
This study investigates the drivers influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from road transport in Spain between 1990 and 2010, with a specific focus on the impact of the economic crisis. Motivated by the need to design effective decarbonization strategies, the authors address the gap in previous literature, which largely ignored the crisis period and socioeconomic factors. The research aims to identify key determinants of emissions to propose tailored policy recommendations for reducing the sector's carbon footprint. The methodology employs a Modified Laspeyres Index (MLI) decomposition analysis to quantify the contribution of various drivers to emission changes. The study defines seven specific drivers: carbon intensity, energy intensity, use intensity, motorization rate, job intensity, workers' income intensity, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Data were sourced from official Spanish institutions, including traffic flow measurements, vehicle fleet registrations, fuel sales statistics, and national GHG inventories. The additive MLI approach was selected to avoid residual terms and accurately attribute interaction effects to specific factors. The results reveal that Spain’s economic growth was historically linked to rising GHG emissions, with an average annual increase of 5% from 1990 to 2007. However, emissions declined steadily from 2007 to 2010, marking the first decrease in Spanish road traffic emissions. The decomposition analysis identified that reductions in traffic activity (driven by decreased mobility due to the crisis) and improvements in energy efficiency were the primary contributors to this decline. While motorization rates and GDP growth generally increased emissions, the crisis-induced drop in traffic activity and workers' income intensity outweighed these factors. Conversely, job intensity increased over the period as employment grew slower than the population, contributing to higher emissions. The study confirms that energy-saving measures and reduced mobility were effective in lowering the carbon footprint during the economic downturn. The significance of this work lies in its demonstration that socioeconomic factors, particularly employment and income dynamics, are critical drivers of transport emissions. The findings validate the effectiveness of energy-efficiency strategies and highlight the complex interplay between economic conditions and environmental outcomes. Based on these insights, the authors propose specific policy recommendations for future implementation, emphasizing the need for strategies that target key parameters identified through the MLI framework to achieve sustainable, low-carbon road transport.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| extract | success | pdftotext | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
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| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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