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.
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
Nuclear engineering and technology transfer: the Spanish strategies to deal with US, French and German nuclear manufacturers, 1955–1985
(Routledge, 2020) Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Sánchez Sánchez, Esther M.; Sanz Lafuente, María Gloria; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía
We analysed the process of construction and connection to the electrical grid of four Spanish nuclear power plants with different financial and technological foreign partners: those of Zorita (PWR by Westinghouse), Garoña (BWR by General Electric) and Vandellós I (GCR by EDF) (belonging to the first generation of atomic plants and producing electricity from 1969–72) and that of Trillo I (PWR by KWU, connected in 1988). These four examples allow us to observe how the learning curve of nuclear engineering and the acquisition of skills by Spanish companies evolved. Progressively the domestic industry achieved higher levels of participation, fostered by the Ministry of Industry and Energy. When the atomic plants under construction were paralysed by the nuclear moratorium of 1984, and several other projects were abandoned by the utilities along the way, Spain had developed an industrial sector around the fabrication of service components and engineering for nuclear power plants to compete internationally.
Open Access
Historia del uranio en España: de la minería a la fabricación del combustible nuclear, c. 1900-1986: reseña
(Asociación Española de Historia Económica, 2022) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia
Reseña del libro de Esther Sánchez y Santiago López en el que se aborda la historia del uranio en España que, en términos generales, no ha recibido tanta atención historiográfica como las centrales nucleares. Se trata de un libro de encargo, elaborado en colaboración con la Sociedad Nuclear Española (SNE) y está organizado en cuatro grandes capítulos.
Open Access
España y Euratom
(Sociedad Nuclear Española (SNE), 2024) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia
Mientras que las Agencias nucleares de la ONU y la OECE/OCDE nacieron a posteriori de la organización matriz, la Comunidad Europea de la Energía Atómica (Euratom) nació ya como parte de los Tratados de Roma en 1957 que dieron luz a las Comunidades Europeas, y con sus mismos miembros originales (Bélgica, Francia, Alemania Occidental, Italia, Luxemburgo y los Países Bajos). A diferencia del Organismo Internacional de la Energía Atómica (OIEA) y de la Agencia Europea de la Energía Nuclear (AEN), en cuyas discusiones nucleares intervendría España como uno más antes de 1959, la participación formal en Euratom hubo de esperar hasta la integración en la Comunidad Económica Europea en 1986. Ello no quiere decir que no existieran otro tipo de vínculos y de acceso desde Madrid a lo que ocurría en Euratom antes de esa fecha. En su devenir histórico, Euratom se verá afectada por las crisis y ampliaciones de su organización matriz con mucha más virulencia que los otros organismos internacionales dedicados a la energía atómica. En este capítulo presentamos primero la constitución de Euratom y sus dificultades internas anteriores a la adhesión española, para después adentrarnos en las relaciones de Euratom con España.
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
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
The power of persuasion: exploring the relationship between advertising and nuclear energy in Spain
(Emerald, 2024-12-09) Aramendia Muneta, María Elena; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa, PJUPNA2023–11931
Purpose: this study aims to examine how the nuclear energy issue was used for advertising purposes at the dawn of the atomic era in Spain. Design/methodology/approach: newspapers and magazines from the atomic era were reviewed to assess the impact of nuclear energy on advertising campaigns for all kinds of unrelated products. This study interprets the message and information contained in several marketing campaigns from the detonation of the first nuclear bomb in 1945 until the inauguration of the first nuclear facility in Spain in 1968. Findings: private companies leapt at the chance to use the new technology, with its promises of a brighter future, to promote their products, including watches, Venetian blinds, anisette, chocolates, pencils and fountain pens, spa resorts, books and encyclopaedias, laundry detergents, pressure cookers, concentrate feeds and hair restorers. This study makes a major contribution to the history of marketing literature, focusing on nuclear energy as an influential agent in industry, advertising agencies and popular culture. It shows how advertising campaigns used terms such as 'nuclear', 'atomic' and 'atomic bomb' and images of mushroom clouds or atom symbols to denote modernity and allure and explores how government policies - in this case, concerning nuclear energy - can influence marketers and advertisers. Originality/value: the paper's originality stems from its analysis of Spanish advertisements to explore marketing history through the terms and imagery associated with nuclear energy and its industry. It further contributes to the understanding of how nuclear energy is represented and conceptualised for various purposes in popular culture.
Open Access
The energy and gross domestic product causality nexus in Latin America 1900-2010
(EconJournals, 2020) Leiva, Benjamín; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
A better understanding of the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth is important for the less developed regions of the world such as Africa or Latin America, which future might be compromised by the imposition of the transition to a lower carbon economy. Studies on the energy-GDP nexus for Latin America have been few and bounded to short periods. We fill this gap by searching for causal paths between energy and GDP for 20 Latin American countries using a newly compiled dataset spanning the 20th century. Our main identification strategy is based on super exogeneity, which we complement with Granger tests, Toda and Yamamoto and enrich by controlling for structural breaks and the False Discovery Rate. The results highlight the inexistence of a homogeneous relation between energy and GDP in highly heterogeneous spatial and temporal dimensions, and thus the need to enhance our theoretical understanding of this relation. The policy implication is that designing and implementing energy policies coming from a single methodological approach and based on aggregated results should be avoided.
Open Access
Transiciones energéticas en España
(Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2024) Muñoz Delgado, Beatriz; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
El consumo de fuentes de energía ha sido una constante a lo largo de la historia de la humanidad. Conforme las sociedades se han ido desarrollando, han ido incrementando la cantidad, la diversidad y la calidad de las energías demandadas para satisfacer sus necesidades. Esta evolución ha motivado cambios en los sistemas energéticos: en su estructura (variedad de energías empleadas), tecnologías e infraestructuras asociadas, eficiencia, intensidad, seguridad de suministro y en sus impactos medioambientales, haciendo más complejos y determinantes a los sistemas energéticos. Estos cambios han permitido la expansión de la capacidad de transformación del entorno por parte de los seres humanos, una mayor complejidad de las sociedades y la ampliación de la frontera de posibilidades de producción y consumo. En este fluir de los acontecimientos, se han ido produciendo una serie de transiciones energéticas.