Spain Chemical Makers Cut Greenhouse Gases 24 Percent

By Todd White

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Spanish chemical manufacturers say they’ve reduced greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming more than most industries in the nation after buying new technology to filter and recycle waste gases.

Companies making a majority of the nation’s fertilizer, chlorine and other chemicals cut emissions 24 percent in the eight years through 2007, Jesus Soriano, environmental director for the Feique industry group, said today in an interview. Pollution- control investments exceeded those in the food, metals or energy industries in 2006, the most recent year for government data.

The gains contrast with Spain’s overall failure in curbing gases that create the heat-trapping greenhouse effect. Emissions have surged by one-half since 1990, the largest increase among the world’s industrialized countries in that period, the United Nations said in November, citing 2006 data.

“The chemicals industry is technology-intensive and has taken on better practices and more qualified personnel than many low-tech industries,” Soriano said. He supervises a UN-recognized pollution-control program in Spain that has been adopted by 53 countries.

A spokeswoman at the environmental organization Greenpeace Spain said she had no immediate comment on the data.

The industry’s investments have been concentrated in systems that filter and recycle gases and waste water. Environmental spending totaled 411 million euros ($531 million) in 2006.

Spain’s 3,600 chemical companies as a group are headed to release about 24 percent less emissions in 2012, Feique estimated in a statement yesterday.

Breaking Pledge

In contrast, the nation may miss its pledge to keep the growth of greenhouse gases to 15 percent through 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol treaty to stem global warming. Both measurements use 1990 as a base year.

The Madrid-based trade group counts among its members the non- energy chemicals units of Repsol YPF SA and Compania Espanola de Petroleos SA, the nation’s largest oil companies, Fertiberia SA and Maxam, Spain’s biggest fertilizer and explosives makers.

The most polluting industry is power generation, contributing 27 percent of greenhouse gases, followed by transportation, at 25 percent, according to environment ministry data. Manufacturers of chemicals and other products are lumped together with the construction industry, which as a group contributed 16 percent of the total 433 million tons of gases released in 2006.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Todd White at twhite2@bloomberg.net.