The 15^th Conference of the Spanish Association for Energy Economics (AEEE) was held at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, at the lovely city of Toledo, from 29^th to 31^st January 2020.

Since our University would be hosting the event, some GEAR members led the organization of the 2020 edition of the conference in close collaboration with Leticia Blázquez, from the UCLM’s Talavera and Toledo Campuses. All together worked hard to successfully ensure a wonderful conference for all the attendees and speakers.

GEAR members participated not only as organizers but also as speakers in the academic sessions of the conference. The research works presented by GEAR members at the conference were:

• «Emission Taxes, Feed-in Subsidies and the Investment in a Clean Technology by a Polluting Monopoly». García-Alaminos, A., and Rubio, S. J.
• «Unequal rural and urban household carbon footprint in Spain and the impact of carbon taxation», Tomás, M. Á., López, L.A. and Monsalve, F.
• «The carbon footprint of Spain’s photovoltaic industry». Zafrilla, J.; Arce, G. and Monsalve, F.
• «Environmental and economic impacts of Brexit in the consumption of vegetables and fruits in the UK», López, L.A., Tobarra, M.A., Carrascal, A. and Ortega, R.
• «Towards energy transition: sustainability assessment of a hybrid solar thermal – Biomass gasifier power plant in Tunisia». Banacloche, S., Herrera, I. and Lechón, Y.
• «Triple bottom line analysis of the Spanish solar photovoltaic sector: A footprint assessment». Zafrilla, J., Arce; G., Cadarso, M.-Á., Córcoles, C.; Gómez, N., López, L.-A., Monsalve, F. and Tobarra, M.-Á.
• «Economic and environmental impacts of decarbonization through a hybrid MRIO multiplier-accelerator model», Dejuan, O., Ortiz, M. and Portella-Carbó, F.
• «The European Union’s carbon emissions under the control-based criterion». Ortiz, M., López, L.A., and Cadarso, M.A.
• «Viabilidad económica y medioambiental de la estrategia de ecoinnovación “CO2-AFP Strategy”». Gueddari, A., Zafrilla, J., García-Yuste, S., Alonso-Moreno, C., Canales-Vázquez, J. Paper awared with the best flash session prize of the conference. Congrats Abde!
• Inter-institutional research project: «Red Temática de Modelización Energética para una Transición Energética Sostenible (MENTES)». Coordinated by Cadarso, M.A. and presented by Arocena, P.

Reaffirming our commitment to the environment and sustainability, the GEAR group promoted a sustainable conference from the organization and did our best to get the provisions needed during the conference from eco-friendly suppliers. Moreover, we assessed the carbon footprint of the event and found that it reached 10.2 tonnes of CO2, approximately. The estimate covered all the direct and indirect carbon emissions generated in the organization and by all attendees. These findings were presented at the closing ceremony, where it was announced that the conference’s carbon footprint would be totally compensated by the Vice-rectorate for Research of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM).  

Finally, we also want to highlight the remarkable achievements reached by two GEAR young members, Ángela García-Alaminos and Santacruz Banacloche, who received two of the Energy Economics Young Researchers Awards of the conference. Santacruz obtained a travel grant for his outstanding work and Ángela was awarded the 1^st Prize for Young Researchers for the article with the highest quality and relevance in the field of Energy Economics.

Congratulations to Ángela and Santacruz for their prizes and all GEAR members and Leticia Blázquez for making possible such a great conference!

PROGRAM OF THE CONFERENCE: http://www.aeee.es/xv_congreso_aeee/en/program/