The Climate Change Expert Committee (CECC) presents the proposed carbon budgets for Catalonia

The Committee of Experts on Climate Change (CECC) has delivered to the Government of Catalonia the first proposal for carbon budgets. This is a pioneering tool in Catalonia and throughout Spain that aims to help achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050, considering the technical and economic viability of the Catalan reality. The carbon budgets recommend the total volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that Catalonia can emit between 2021 and 2035, which has been set at 403 megatons of CO2 equivalent, representing a 67% reduction in 2035 compared to 1990. This figure has been determined in line with scientific guidelines to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement. CREAF has two members in the CECC and has led the technical coordination, so this is a milestone we celebrate.

"The proposed carbon budgets represent a key milestone for climate action in Catalonia. For the first time, the country has a detailed estimate of what emissions we can afford to emit — and how to allocate them across sectors — in order to move justly and responsibly towards climate neutrality, aligning with the urgency defined by science and international agreements. The carbon budgets allow us to plan, set priorities, monitor progress, and demand coherence in action. They force us to accept that there is no room for ambiguity or delay. We recognize that the transformation must be shared: it involves the responsibility of society as a whole, political forces, institutions, and the economic fabric," explains Melodia Tamayo, Technical Lead for working with the Committee of Expert People on Climate Change in Catalonia.

The carbon budgets propose an average annual reduction of 8% of GHG emissions from 2021 to 2035, compared to the average annual increase of 1% in emissions between 2015 and 2019, or the 0.2% reduction in 2022 (the last year for which data is available). The carbon budget proposal represents a 67% reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990, a figure higher than that proposed in the draft Catalonia Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2030 (PINECCAT30), which proposes a 29% reduction in emissions compared to 1990. This plan will define the milestones for the energy transition by 2030 on the path to climate neutrality.

"If we aim to limit global warming to levels that allow for a habitable planet, we must act decisively in the coming decade. Delaying the required socio-economic transformation and adaptation and mitigation policies will result in more severe global warming and put future generations at risk. That is why the Committee proposes making a significant and sustained emissions reduction effort from the very start," says Olga Margalef, researcher at the UB and CREAF.

To achieve this goal, according to the CECC, ambitious public policies are required in energy, mobility, and green taxation, priority investments in renewable energy, public and collective transport, building rehabilitation, policies framed within citizen and business participation processes that encourage sustainable consumption models, and a just eco-social transition.
 

"The carbon budgets for Catalonia represent an important step for the country as a whole, not only in the purely technical part of numerical targets to achieve but because, to reach these decarbonization milestones, we must seriously consider structural socio-economic changes from now on. These changes mean abandoning reliance on current inertia, to move towards a proactive and truly committed attitude from society as a whole, not just politicians and activists, but social agents, companies, and, above all, the main economic sectors," says Jordi Solé, researcher at ICM-CSIC and CREAF.

The CECC report sets the global and disaggregated carbon budgets across seven sectors (transport, industry, energy, agriculture, residential, waste, and services) and structured in five-year periods from 2021 to 2035 to guide climate action in Catalonia. Between 2026 and 2030, emissions should be reduced by 45% compared to 2022, and by 2035, they should be reduced by 69% compared to 2022 (equivalent to a 67% reduction compared to 1990).

The carbon budgets highlight that the sectors facing the most significant challenges are:

• The transport sector, which represents 32% of current emissions, will need to reduce emissions by 72% by 2035 compared to 2022. The CECC's proposals focus on electrifying private vehicles, increasing the use of public transport, and active mobility (walking or cycling), promoting freight transport by train, urban and territorial planning, and implementing housing policies that reduce mobility and air travel in favor of trains.
• The industry sector, which emits 28% of the total, will need to reduce emissions by 65%. This can be achieved, according to the CECC, through the global reduction in demand for products, energy consumption reduction and efficiency in production, the use of renewable energy, and the development of carbon capture and storage technologies.
• The energy sector, which represents 13% of current emissions, will need to reduce emissions by 91%. This will be achieved mainly through the significant increase in renewable energy and the replacement of gas and diesel generation. Since this sector impacts all others, the carbon budgets include reducing energy demand through various channels, such as intensifying the energy rehabilitation of buildings, promoting tourism in favor of other economic sectors with lower CO2 emissions, and reorganizing the generation model, for example, by boosting energy communities and shared self-consumption.

"It is not (just) about electrifying all processes that currently rely on fossil fuels, but about working consciously to reduce energy and material consumption," adds Margalef.

The CECC makes this commitment to avoid endangering the economy and well-being of present and future generations, forecasting the reductions required for the 2036-2050 period and noting that the later decarbonization is delayed, the more costly and less prepared we will be to adapt to a green and competitive economy. The CECC emphasizes that delaying the more intense emissions reductions in time would lead to excessive efforts for different sectors and future generations, loss of competitiveness, and the risk of social disruptions. For these reasons, it is better to act sooner and gradually. In addition to ensuring an effective and just transition for citizens and all social and economic sectors towards a prosperous and decarbonized economy, the proposed budget meets climate justice criteria for achieving the global GHG reduction targets. The climate justice approach helps determine the fair contribution of each territory to the global goal, based on the principles of equality, responsibility, capacity, and the right to development.

The carbon budgets include all GHGs (CO2, CH4, N2O, and fluorinated gases) and have been prepared using available official data, proprietary prospective models, consultations with economic actors, and available scientific research.

Carbon budgets are a planning tool provided for in the Catalan Law 16/2017 on climate change. Therefore, they are a necessary requirement, and regardless of the government in power, they will set the direction for climate policy. A carbon budget defines the amount of GHGs that can be emitted into the atmosphere over a specific period. To calculate this, one must take into account the total emissions of the territory, in this case, Catalonia, and the targets set to achieve climate neutrality. With this information, the path to follow for key sectors of the economy is outlined, and monitoring can be done, so it is a crucial tool for planning any policy but restrictive as it sets strict limits. 

The carbon budget proposal delivered has been prepared at the request of the Generalitat by a committee of experts. Now, the government must evaluate the proposal and adapt it according to its criteria to present it to the Catalan Parliament for approval. If the final budgets deviate significantly from the CECC's proposal, it will need to be justified. Once approved, plans made until now, or future ones like the PINECCAT30 o la PROENCAT 2050, will have to adjust to the results of the final carbon budget.

The Law 16/2017, of August 1 on climate change, provides for the creation of the Committee of Experts on Climate Change, a collegial body attached to the department responsible for climate change, with functional autonomy, whose main tasks are to present to the Government and Parliament a proposal for carbon budgets and to monitor and evaluate their implementation to reach emission neutrality by 2050. The CECC was partially established in 2019, provided with technical secretariat support in mid-2022, and definitively constituted in December 2022 with the seven members established by law. The members act voluntarily. The CECC included Ms. Bàrbara Pons and Ms. Sarai Roca, and the current members of the CECC are: 

Montserrat Termes Rifé, PhD in Economics, associate professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Barcelona (UB); Frederic Ximeno Roca, biologist and master's in Territorial and Urban Studies, director of the Climate Action Area of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area; Carme García Lores, degree in Philosophy and Letters and master's in Contemporary History, advisor for Ecological Transition and Energy of the Viladecans City Council; Salvador Lladó Fernández, PhD in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, associate professor at the Faculty of Biology of the UB; Olga Margalef Marrasé, PhD in Earth Sciences, professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the UB and researcher at CREAF; Jordi Solé Ollé, PhD in Applied Physics from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, scientific researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC) and at CREAF, coordinator of the European project MEDEAS and the project PYMEDEASCAT; Marta Torres Gunfaus, MSc in Industrial Engineering, director of the Climate Program at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris. The executive summary of the presented report can be found in the document attached to this press release. The full report, as well as other reports produced by the CECC, are available on their website: