Análisis regional sistémico para evaluar el impacto ambiental y las implicaciones en la política de cambio climático. El caso de estudio de Puebla, México.

Abstract

Power generation is the main anthropogenic cause of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions around the world, which mostly continues to depend on fossil fuels. In 2018 coal-fired electricity generation accounted for 30% of global CO2 emissions (IEA, 2019). This situation is not different in the case of Mexico and its states, since the generation of energy, mainly electric, is the primary cause of greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, it is inexorable to quantify and understand the carbon footprint caused by electric usage from both the national and regional levels (states, municipalities, or cities). The importance of quantifying the carbon footprint at a regional level lies in the need for states, municipalities, and cities to add up to the national emissions accounting to comply with the national goals and international commitments acquired by Mexico through the Paris Agreement. The relevance of analyzing the carbon footprint's composition lies in understanding the origin of emissions to seek mitigating actions tailored for each region and each of its economic sectors. In response to these two needs, this thesis uses the economic life cycle analysis to quantify the electrical carbon footprint of eighty sectors of the regional economy of the state of Puebla, Mexico. However, not only the accounting of the carbon footprint is relevant when trying to understand the environmental impacts caused by the economic activities of a country or region. It is also essential to quantify and understand the flow of materials and indicators derived from such quantification since intensive and extensive material flow indicators can serve both as a measure for the pressure exerted by the economy on the environment when exploiting natural resources, as well as a potential source of air, water, and soil contaminants. This doctoral thesis is structured around three core chapters; 5, 6, and 7. In each of these chapters, the results obtained from the quantitative analysis derived from the application of three methodologies are discussed and presented: i) economic life cycle analysis with input-output tables, ii) structural decomposition analysis with input-output tables, and iii) material flow accounting and analysis; all of these applied to the case study of the state of Puebla in Mexico. Chapters 5 and 6 are developed around the analysis of the carbon footprint caused by electricity usage in the eighty industrial and commercial sectors of the Mexican economy, reported in the input-output table extracted from the EORA database for the year 2013. For chapter 5, it was calculated the needed electric usage for satisfying the intermediate and final demand of the Mexican economy; the carbon footprint for each of the eighty sectors mentioned above was calculated, by using the national electric emission factor. Chapter 6 presents the results of the structural decomposition analysis. The purpose of this analysis was to identify the level of influence that fluctuations in final demand and technological changes had in the variation of final production in each of the eighty studied sectors, in Mexico and Puebla, comparing the years 2008 and 2013. Productive links were also estimated for each of the sectors. Chapter 7 offers a prospect of community metabolism by using the material flow accounting methodology, through which intensive and extensive indicators of the use of materials by Mexico's and Puebla's economies have been obtained from 2004 to 2017. These indicators allow determining the metabolic profiles of Mexico's (country) and Puebla's (state) economies.

Date of Award	18 Jan 2021
Original language	Spanish
Awarding Institution	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Supervisor	Gara Villalba Mendez (Director), Cristina Madrid López (Director) & Chavéz Abel Antonio (Director)