Open Access
200 years diversifying the energy mix? Diversification paths of the energy baskets of European early comers vs. latecomers
(Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2017) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Muñoz Delgado, Beatriz; Economía; Ekonomia
The changes in the composition of the energy basket in the long run lead to energy transitions. Primary energy substitution models allow addressing these phenomena. However, the diversification paths of the energy mix of different countries in a long term compared perspective have not been studied yet. This paper proposes an indicator, based on the Herfindahl‐Hirschman Index, the Energy Mix Concentration Index (EMCI), to quantify the degree of diversification of the primary energy basket of eight European countries over the last two centuries. The results reveal that early comers, which are large energy consumers, required a huge concentration of their energy basket in the 19th century; however, the observed countries had converged to similar levels of diversification of their energy mixes from the second half of the 20th century, and more crucially after the oil crises. For some countries, today’s degree of diversification is the largest in their energy histories, but it is not the case for all of them. Our results suggest that small energy consuming countries would be able to achieve higher diversification, and therefore to do a faster transition to a low carbón economy, than large energy consumers.
Open Access
"Spain-Eximbank's billion dollar client": the role of the us financing the Spanish nuclear program
(Asociación Española de Historia Económica (AEHE), 2016) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia
En 1972, Henry Kearns, presidente y director del Export-Import Bank de los Estados Unidos (Eximbank), visitó la Cámara Oficial de Comercio e Industria de Madrid. El título de su discurso'España – el cliente del billón de dólares del Eximbank' daba cuenta del importante papel que el banco público estadounidense jugaba en la financiación de las compras españolas de bienes de equipo, como aviones, fábricas de acero, estaciones satelitales y plantas eléctricas, entre otros. La concentración en nuevas instalaciones de generación eléctrica convertía a España en aquel momento en el país con el más rápido desarrollo de energía nuclear de Europa, y el mayor comprador de tecnología nuclear de los EE.UU. mano a mano con Japón. Ninguna otra nación se acercó a estos dos en ese sentido. Utilizando materiales de archivo del Eximbank y la Administración Nacional de Archivos y Registro de los Estados Unidos (NARA), exploramos las facilidades financieras que los EE.UU. proporcionaron al programa nuclear español, el tamaño de los créditos autorizados y su evolución en el tiempo. Se hace evidente que el bombeo de dinero público norteamericano para la exportación de las instalaciones nucleares en el mundo explica en gran medida el cuasimonopolio del mercado nuclear mundial que los EE.UU. tuvieron antes de la década de 1980, y en particular su importancia para convertir a España en uno de los pioneros y líder en la adopción de la tecnología nuclear.
Open Access
Economía en transición: del tardofranquismo a la democracia
(Marcial Pons Historia, 2022) Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia
Este volumen acomete por primera vez un análisis sistemático de la economía española durante la Transición democrática con los métodos y exigencias de la investigación de los historiadores económicos. Se ofrece un balance de largo plazo sobre el cambio económico y social y sus fortalezas y debilidades; la naturaleza del proceso de desmantelamiento del marco institucional de la dictadura y las reformas estructurales sobre el mercado de trabajo, la fiscalidad y el sistema financiero, el impacto global de la crisis emergética y las respuestas de los empresarios y los retos de la integración europea.
Open Access
Indicators and recommendations for assessing sustainable healthy diets
(MDPI, 2021) Martínez Aldaya, Maite; Ibáñez Moya, Francisco C.; Domínguez-Lacueva, Paula; Murillo Arbizu, María Teresa; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Soret Lafraya, Beatriz; Beriain Apesteguía, María José; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Research coupling human nutrition and sustainability concerns is a rapidly developing field, which is essential to guide governments' policies. This critical and comprehensive review analyzes indicators and approaches to 'sustainable healthy diets' published in the literature since this discipline's emergence a few years ago, identifying robust gauges and highlighting the flaws of the most commonly used models. The reviewed studies largely focus on one or two domains such as greenhouse gas emissions or water use, while overlooking potential impact shifts to other sectors or resources. The present study covers a comprehensive set of indicators from the health, environmental and socio-economic viewpoints. This assessment concludes that in order to identify the best food option in sustainability assessments and nutrition analysis of diets, some aspects such as the classification and disaggregation of food groups, the impacts of the rates of local food consumption and seasonality, preservation methods, agrobiodiversity and organic food and different production systems, together with consequences for low-income countries, require further analysis and consideration.
Open Access
Energy and economic growth: the stylized facts
(IAEE, 2016) Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Stern, David I.; Economía; Ekonomia
We summarize what we know about energy and economic growth in a set of stylized facts. We combine analysis of a panel data set of 99 countries from 1971 to 2010 with analysis of some longer run historical data. Our key result is that over the last 40 years there has been a stable cross-sectional relationship between per capita energy use and income per capita with an elasticity of energy use with respect to income of less than unity. This implies that energy intensity has tended to decrease in countries that have become richer but not in others. We also find that over the last two centuries there has been convergence in energy intensity towards the current distribution, per capita energy use has tended to rise and energy quality to increase, and, though evidence is limited, the cost share of energy has declined.
Open Access
Nuclear power for a dictatorship: state and business involvement in the Spanish atomic program 1950-1985
(SAGE, 2016) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia
Spain was the first developing country to exploit a nuclear power plant commercially. By the early 1970s Spain had become the major nuclear client of the USA, the world’s largest reactor exporter. Despite its importance, historians are just beginning to revisit and establish the sequence of the events that make up Spain’s nuclear history. This article analyses the role played by the state in enabling one of Western Europe’s poorest countries to join the exclusive nuclear power club. In a departure from the technological approach used in previous literature, the history of Spain’s progress in the nuclear power field is retraced against the background of its political and economic evolution.
Open Access
Electricidad nuclear y procesos de aprendizaje: el papel de Westinghouse y de General Electric en la experiencia española (c. 1955-1973)
(Universitat de Barcelona, Departament d'Història i Institucions Econòmiques, 2018) Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia
Este artículo explora los procesos de aprendizaje y de transferencia tecnológica que situaron a España entre los firstcomers de la energía nuclear a finales de los años sesenta. Se trata de un ejemplo de industria naciente que, bajo la protección del Estado y la acción de los consorcios empresariales y de las multinacionales norteamericanas, fue capaz de replicar un reto tecnológico complejo. Analizamos cómo se fue creando un ecosistema empresarial en el que fue clave el liderazgo de algunos ingenieros y la cooperación y competencia entre industrias, ingenierías y consultoras. La historia empresarial de las centrales nucleares de Zorita y Garoña ejemplifica un modelo de learning by doing que, a través de los contratos 'llave en mano', permitieron un rápido crecimiento del sector, convenciendo al gobierno de la dictadura y a los promotores eléctricos de que era posible llevar a cabo uno de los programas nucleares más ambiciosos de la Europa occidental.
Open Access
Las dimensiones sociales de la percepción de la energía nuclear. Un análisis del caso español (1960-2015)
(CSIC, 2017) Espluga Trenc, Josep; Medina, Beatriz; Presas, Albert; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia
La energía nuclear es una tecnología compleja, que requiere un uso muy intensivo de recursos y una toma de decisiones muy centralizada, cuya gobernanza supone un auténtico reto para las sociedades democráticas. En el presente artículo se exploran las percepciones sociales sobre la energía nuclear en España a partir de un análisis de encuestas de opinión y de los argumentos de actores de tres estudios de caso (Vandellós I, Valdecaballeros y ATC). Los resultados muestran cómo las argumentaciones de unos y otros actores se basan en diferentes dimensiones del riesgo, a menudo ignoradas en las encuestas y por varios de los actores, lo cual supone una seria dificultad para superar las controversias suscitadas por este tipo de energía.
Open Access
At the crossroad between green and thirsty: carbon emissions and water consumption of Spanish thermoelectricity generation, 1969–2019
(Elsevier, 2022) Cano-Rodríguez, Sara; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Sesma Martín, Diego; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
The energy sector is the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and one of the thirstiest sectors worldwide. Within the energy sector, thermoelectricity directly impacts on both emissions and water. This study assesses the evolution of the direct CO2 emissions and operational water consumption of the Spanish thermoelectricity generation from 1969 to 2019. Both carbon emissions and water consumption correlate over time, led by the trends in total thermal generation, although over the past half century, water requirements swelled far more than carbon emissions. This results in a long-term trade-off between carbon emissions and consumptive water use in relative terms: while the CO2 per thermal MWh generated halved since 1969 in Spain, the operational water consumption per MWh of thermoelectricity generated more than doubled due to switching from coal burning to nuclear and combined cycle technologies. We find no real trade-off in absolute levels. Although moving towards smaller environmental impacts since the mid-2000s, thermoelectricity remains one of the largest carbon emitters while becoming one of thirstiest energy technologies in Spain.
Open Access
Tracking water for human activities: from the ivory tower to the ground
(Elsevier, 2021) Martínez Aldaya, Maite; Sesma Martín, Diego; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Water policy requires well established metrics for success. Precise metrics allow for quantifying progress and adjusting processes to produce the desired outcomes. We analyze the different schools of thought, nomenclatures and indicators developed for tracking water for human activities. After comparing a variety of terms related to water accounting used to serve the different purposes (environmental vs. ecological economics), we found that the different approaches to water tracking utilize identical terms to refer to distinctive concepts. The characterization of widely used terms such as 'water use' varies across different branches of literature. Different approaches to water measurement and its efficiency have an impact on water allocation. Our paper points out that the current definitions and methods for tracking water for human activities may offer contradictory advice over whether progress is being made towards desirable objectives, which may differ across stakeholders. This review aims at helping the transfer of academic results to empirical decision-making by discerning the differences among the variety of indicators available in the literature and their empirical implications. The ambiguity in the water terminology should be clarified before policy decisions can be useful in practice for guiding actions.