The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, has presented the new edition of the “Environmental Profile of Spain 2005”, a report prepared by the Ministry of the Environment that, in a complete and detailed way, exposes the Spanish environmental situation through indicators and tables.

The main objective of this report is to offer, in an affordable and rigorous way, the best available information on the state of the environment, natural resources and the environmental repercussions of the main productive sectors in Spain, so that all social actors have a broad vision of the situation of the environment in our country.

The “Environmental Profile of Spain 2005” highlights among its main conclusions that Spain maintains a process of economic development that improves the quality of life, but that it still entails an increase in the urbanization process and an intensive use of resources, which causes the pressures on our environment to be maintained, even increased. 79% of the population and 78% of the main dwellings are already concentrated in 12% of the municipalities, with an area of 19% of the territory. At the same time as the size of urban agglomerations and the occupation of the coastline increases, there is more and more waste. Within the latter, household waste increased by 17% between 1998 and 2003 and reached one and a half tonnes per household per year.

With regard to air pollution, the report reflects positive and negative aspects. Among the latter, the continuous increase in greenhouse gas emissions is shown. In the absence of acidifying and eutrophicant emissions, there is a current trend of reduction in emissions of sulphur dioxide SO2 by 38%, moderation of ammonia (NH3) and slight increase in nitrogen oxides (N0x), while among emissions of precursor gases from tropospheric ozone, only carbon monoxide is the only pollutant showing a continuous reduction.

In short, pressures on the environment are increasing, but policies and initiatives aimed at reducing and correcting aggressions on it are also being developed. Therefore, the fundamental conclusion obtained through this study is that this effort should be continued, especially in those policies that must deal with complex and relatively slow processes, such as climate change, desertification, droughts or floods.