Abstract
In order to achieve the objectives set by the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris agreement, the legislative framework that is developed at the national and regional level must be appropriate. Research has focused on the importance of environmental policies to stimulate renewable energy demand and has also highlighted the existence of legal regimes more inclined to preserve the current model of dependence on fossil fuels. The main aim of this paper is to observe the impact of different regulation framework in the use of renewable energies in electricity generation. The choice of Spain and Cuba was based on several reasons: first, they present different models of legal regulations for renewable energies, with more centralized power in the case of Cuba and more influence of supranational institutions in the case of Spain; second, they have similarities regarding their productive model (highly dependent on hydrocarbons as sources of electricity generation) and the high potential for electricity generation with renewable energies thanks to their rich natural endowment that could favor energy generation from sources like the sun, wind and water; finally, both countries face a global situation where they could take advantage of this cost-cutting moment, and therefore, of electricity tariffs, to propose a sustainable model of electricity generation based exclusively on renewable energies. The conclusions show that Spain can become a role model to improve the Cuban system, given that the European and Spanish “green” positions can be very useful in developing Cuba’s future energy model based on renewables. The existing ties between the Caribbean country, Spain and the European Union (EU) should be the basis to support a model for which Cuba has an outstanding endowment of natural resources and where the similarities with Spain can generate synergies based on the European experience.
Highlights
The 2015 Paris Agreement established that the global increase in the temperature of the planet must be less than two degrees
The emission into the atmosphere of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels in the European Union (EU) increased by 1.8% in 2017 compared to its level of 2016, with Spain being the fourth EU country where greenhouse gases (GHGs) have grown
The comparison between the two cases of analysis of this study shows that Cuba and Spain are in totally opposite places in terms of the development and implementation of these types of mechanisms, which is reflected in the existing legislation analyzed below
Summary
The 2015 Paris Agreement established that the global increase in the temperature of the planet must be less than two degrees. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations’ seventh objective is to achieve affordable and non-polluting energy. All these highlight the momentum of a sustainable global agenda, which entails transforming our economic model into a more global, concerted and multilateral one that lays the foundations for total decarbonization. In 2017, there was such a decrease in solar power prices that it became the cheapest source of energy in much of the world. In 2018, the cost of production of renewables for the first time was lower than that of non-renewables; and already in the first months of 2019, solar and wind power have become the cheapest energy sources in almost 60 countries. The main reason for this evolution and this cost reduction, according to a report by the International Agency for Renewable Energies—IRENA [1]—is the reduction in the cost of the installation of solar panels and wind turbines, as well as the reduction in production costs due to improved storage technology and better network implementation
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