This country note features selected environmental indicators from the OECD Core Set, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. The indicators reflect major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. The OECD is working with countries and other international organisations to further improve the indicators and the underlying data.
Environment at a Glance: Spain
With an area of 506 000 km2 and a coastline of some 8 000 kilometres, Spain is one of Europe’s largest countries. Until 2008, the Spanish economy was regarded as one of the most dynamic within the OECD. During the peak years, tourism and construction contributed more than one-quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) and one fifth of employment, and underpinned a huge bubble in the housing market. This left the economy very vulnerable to the global economic crisis of 2008-09 that hit the country hard. Following implementation of a recovery programme, growth resumed in 2013. The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy hard in 2020, but it recovered in 2022. Nevertheless, unemployment, inequality and poverty rates remain relatively high. The population distribution across the country is uneven with high concentrations around Madrid and along the 7 300 km of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines.
The national territory includes about 85% of the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Africa. Spain is characterised by great geographical and climatic contrasts. Highlands, mountains and plateaus predominate on the mainland; 58% of the country is over 600 metres in altitude, making it the second highest country in Europe after Switzerland. About one-third of Spain has an oceanic climate with frequent rainfall (e.g. Galicia), but some areas (e.g. Andalucia) regularly face serious drought. Spain is one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world and is considered one of the most biodiverse countries in the European Union. While the country includes four of the nine European biogeographic regions, Spanish seas, which occupy more than 1 million km2, belong to 3 of the world’s 49 large marine ecosystems.
Spain is well endowed with mineral resources (such as iron, copper, lead, tin, quartz and salts), which have long been an important resource, such as for the economic development of the Basque Country and Asturias. Spain is not endowed with large energy resources, although it has important coal deposits.
Spain’s real GDP growth, energy supply and production-based CO2 emissions have been growing at about the same rate during the first half of the 2000-10 decade. Following the financial crisis of 2008, energy consumption and production-based CO2 emissions have been relatively decoupled from GDP growth.
The per person production-based and demand-based (or footprint) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain well below the OECD averages, and have steadily declined since 2007.
Transport is the largest source of GHG emissions, followed by energy industries, manufacturing industries and buildings. The land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector act as a net sink.
Spain’s energy mix is still dominated by fossil fuels, although the share of coal has been significantly reduced and replaced with renewables in the past decades. The share of renewables in energy supply and electricity production are above the OECD averages.
Emissions of most major air pollutants have been declining since 2000, but progress stalled since 2013. Emission intensities per unit of GDP and per person are lower than the OECD average.
Population exposure to PM2.5 concentrations is above the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 5 µ/m3. Regional variation in exposure is high.
Although pressure on renewable freshwater resources has decreased in the past decades, water stress remains medium-high, with gross abstractions representing 29% of renewable freshwater resources in 2020. Abstractions per person remain among the highest in the OECD area, mainly due to agricultural irrigation. Abstractions per person for public supply is also high by OECD standards.
Almost 90% of Spanish households are connected to a wastewater treatment plant. Although the share of tertiary (advanced) treatment has increased considerably since 2000, it remains relatively low (less than 60% in 2021).
Generation of municipal waste has remained more or less stable in the last decade, below the OECD average. Nevertheless, still almost half of municipal waste is sent to landfill. Data show a break in time series in 2004 and 2014.
Domestic material consumption per person has declined following the 2008 economic crisis, and has stabilised after 2012. On the other hand, material productivity has increased and surpassed the OECD average. Like most OECD countries, non-metallic mineral makes up the bulk of materials consumed, and the material footprint is higher than domestic material consumption.
Spain is one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world and considered one of the most biodiverse countries in the European Union. Spanish coastal waters possess a high level of biological diversity, with the southern Iberian Peninsula being especially important in terms of biodiversity and endemic species. The country’s geographical diversity is extremely varied, consisting of landscapes and ecosystems that include intertidal zones, beaches, cliffs, dune systems, salt marshes, saline steppes, etc. Spain also covers four biogeographical regions (Mediterranean, Atlantic, Alpine, Macaronesian) comprised of habitats that have favoured the development of a great assortment of vegetation types, to which a variety of fauna communities is associated. The country is also rich in freshwater habitats. Spain has the highest number of vascular plants (8 000-9 000 species) among European and Mediterranean countries. Its rate of endemism is between 20-25%. Spain also has the highest incidence of threatened endemic flora. In the last decades, Spanish biodiversity has suffered a significant decrease, with between 40-60% of assessed species included in some threatened category (CBD, 2022[1]).
Spain has almost reached the 2030 GBF target (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) to protect at least 30% of land area, although the share of protected areas designated under strict management objectives (IUCN categories I and II) is low. More efforts are needed to achieve the same target for marine and coastal areas.
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
During the past ten years, environmentally-related tax revenue as percentage of GDP has fluctuated around 1.8%, above the OECD average but below the OECD Europe average. It decreased to 1.6% in 2022. As in many countries, most receipts come from taxes on energy products and, to a lower extent, on motor vehicles’ purchase and use.
In the past, the chief source of support to fossil-fuel production was the financial assistance to the country’s hard-coal mining industry. This compensation mechanism ended in 2014, provoking the downward trend in producer support observed since 2009. The Spanish government announced its compliance with EU regulations (Decision 2010/787/UE) about the closure of non-competitive coal mines by the end of 2018. Since 2020, the government introduced several measures as a response to the adverse economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and to mitigate rising energy prices in the wake of the large-scale aggression by Russia over Ukraine (OECD, 2023[2]).
In total, 68.9% of GHG emissions in Spain were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in Spain consist of emissions trading system (ETS) permit prices and carbon taxes, which cover 33.8% of GHG emissions in CO2 eq. With roughly 31.4% of total GHG emissions, coverage is largest for ETS. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, cover 44.1% of emissions in 2023. Direct fossil fuel subsidies cover 4.6% of emissions. About 58% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 eq., a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net ECRs are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 26.7% of the country's total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average negative in the buildings sector. The buildings sector accounts for 8.5% of GHG emissions (OECD, 2024[3]).
The share of environmentally-related government R&D budget in total public R&D is quite high by international comparison, at about 3%. Furthermore, renewables haveaccounted for about half public energy RD&D during 2008-16, although the share has drastically decreased in 2021-22.
In terms of environmentally-related inventions, Spain follows quite closely the OECD area trend, with a growth during the period 2000-12 and a flattening of the trend afterwards.
Spain approved a new Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity in 2023, which aligns its priorities with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It also gives legal status to its commitment to allocate 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) to official development assistance (ODA) by 2030. Priority regions for co-operation remain Latin America and the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East, and West Africa and the Sahel. Spain’s ODA increased in 2024 to USD 4.4 billion (preliminary data), representing 0.25% of gross national income.
In 2022-23, Spain committed 31.5% of its total bilateral allocable ODA in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 17.6% in 2020-21. The DAC average was 39% in 2022-23. Fifteen per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 9.6%. Seventeen per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA focused on climate change overall, up from 9.5% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 34.8%). Spain had a greater focus on mitigation (14.9%) than on adaptation (6.4%) in 2022-23. Ten per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on biodiversity overall, up from 6.3% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 7.6%).Spain committed USD 4.8 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2023, USD 12.6 million less than in 2022. The 2023 value is equivalent to 0.4% of Spain’s bilateral allocable ODA. (OECD, 2025[4]).
References
[1] CBD (2022), Country profiles: Spain, https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=es#facts.
[4] OECD (2025), Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/spain_63702c87-en.html.
[3] OECD (2024), Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b44c74e6-en.
[2] OECD (2023), OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels: Country Notes, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5a3efe65-en.
IEA (2021), Spain 2021 Energy Policy Review, IEA Energy Policy Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9aecb5bb-en.
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