- For the first time, the report includes indicators on green employment and environmental protection spending.
- Renewable installed capacity grew by 9.1% compared to the previous year
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge publishes the Environmental Profile of Spain (PAE) 2022, a situation analysis of the environmental health of our country. With more than 100 environmental indicators divided into six areas of knowledge, this report analyzes various variables such as air, soil and water quality; the state of the coasts and the marine and terrestrial environment; and the health of our forests and protected ecosystems. This year, for the first time, it includes indicators on green employment, environmental protection spending and environmental taxes, among others.
With the presentation of the PAE, as it has done every year since 2004, the Ministry complies with its international commitments regarding transparency and access to environmental information, in the context of the EIONET Network of the European Environment Agency and the Aarhus Convention, to which Spain has been a party since 2005.
Renewable energy
In 2022, renewable installed capacity will grow by 9.1 % compared to the previous year, i.e. an increase of 5,899 MW, highlighting the growth of Spain’s energy environment.
Renewable energy facilities account for 59.2% of the electricity generation park in our country. It is worth highlighting the 4.9% increase in installed wind power capacity in the last year, making it the generation technology with the highest installed capacity on the Spanish mainland.
Green jobs and investment and development policies
During 2022, the total number of registered green jobs reached 1,606,704, of which 1,351,678 were for men and 255,026 for women. In percentage terms, green jobs accounted for 10.4% of the total, remaining at levels identical to those in 2021 and very similar to those observed in 2019 and 2020.
With regard to National Environmental Protection Expenditure (GNPA), the expenditure made in Spain for this item amounted to 19,417.6 million euros in 2021, a figure only 0.2 % higher than the expenditure made in 2020. In relation to the Gross Domestic Product, it represented 1.6% of the same. The areas with the greatest weight in the GNPA in 2021 were Waste Management services (62.6% of total expenditure) and Wastewater Management services (17.7%). In terms of variations, the largest increase in spending with respect to the previous year corresponded to Biodiversity and landscape protection services (26.2%).
Natural environment and water
In the natural environment sub-area, the protected land area in Spain accounted for 36.7% of the total in 2022, and the marine area, 12.3%. Having surpassed the goal of protecting 30% of the land area, the Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity to 2030 sets the challenge of protecting 30% of the marine area.
In coastal and marine environment, the good condition of our beaches stands out, with almost 93 % of coastal waters rated as excellent. The sampling points that show excellent quality are once again recovering the positive trend of the last six years, although without yet recovering the levels of 2020.
In the inland water subarea, it should be noted that the peninsular reserve for the 2021-2022 hydrological year was lower than that of the last 5 and 10 years. Specifically, at the end of the 2021-2022 hydrological year (September 27, 2022), the peninsular reservoir water reserve was 18,270 hm3 (32.5% of the reservoir capacity).
Forest fires
The year 2022 was a year of record temperatures and a very prolonged drought that favored the spread of losses, with an increase in all variables compared to the previous year: the number of losses (18.9% increase), and the area affected, both forested (140.7%) and, especially, wooded (370%).
The average annual area of large forest fires (fires that affect an area equal to or greater than 500 ha) is a relevant indicator to assess the extent to which the size of this type of fire is increasing, and depends largely on the great variability between fires that reach 500 ha and those that exceed them by far. The sharp increase in the area burned in the last year responds to the fact that in 2022 there were eight such fires of more than 10,000 ha affected.
