El efecto del mercado de emisiones europeo en las emisiones de la aviación en España

Abstract

Since 2012, all air routes starting or finishing in the European Economic Area are included in the EU Emissions Trading system (ETS). Empirical evidence has shown that this policy instrument reduced emissions by 5 % as compared to the counterfactual at the EU level (Fageda & Teixidó, 2022). However, this effect is potentially heterogeneous across countries. Applying a difference-in-difference strategy, here we focus on Spain, a country with high speed rail deployment and with a significant tourism industry. We find that Spanish aviation emissions were up to 10 % lower because of the EU ETS, 13 % lower if there was a HSR connection and 11 % less when focusing only on tourist destinations. All these reductions in emissions were driven by a reduction in flights.