Cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in addition to island regionsrequired by law to activate Low Emission Zones (ZBE) A few days before the municipal elections, it’s still a pending task for most cities in the country.
For the purpose of improve air quality and also reduce greenhouse gas emissionsThe Climate Change Act obliges these large municipalities, as well as island settlements and municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants to exceed the limit levels of regulated pollutants, to implement restricted traffic areas in ZBE urban centres, such as those operating in Madrid and Barcelona. .
But, this should have happened before the start of 2023 And so, almost in the middle of the year and in the midst of the municipal elections – next Sunday, May 28 – most of the cities are “already late”, complains Carmen Duce, head of mobility at Ecologytas en Acción.
In December 2022, as requested by environmental groups, the Government passed a royal decree regulating ZBEs and establishing guidelines to standardize these areas and provide legal certainty to administrations.
The measure gave cities that already had planning tools similar to LEZs an 18-month period to adapt their models to the new requirements.
“The problem is many cities have interpreted the LEZ as having 18 months to activate – and that’s not what’s clearly stated in the royal decree –” said Duce, pointing to emphasizing that one of the problems is the lack of any enforcement mechanism and therefore he believes city councils are waiting for elections to pass before they can get to work.
Exceptions include Madrid and Barcelona
Before the Climate Change Act in Spain two main LEZs were already operating: Madrid Central Carmena and current mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, renamed Madrid360, which Ciudad Condal attributes to the improvement in recorded air quality and is promoted by the Rondas de Barcelona, which prohibits the most polluting vehicles from traveling on weekdays, and Manuela, the former mayor of the capital .
Pamplona. As clarified by the mayor’s office, one of these labels is visible.
government Zaragoza It also approved the declaration of the Historic District’s interior as a temporary ZBE in December.
There is no city in Euskadi
City victoryInternationally known for the sustainability of its active mobility-based model, which prefers to travel by foot or bike rather than by private vehicle, it expects to do the same this year, but hasn’t specified a specific date.
from six cities of the world Basque Country which should have already spurred a ZBE, none have yet adhered to state regulations: Bilbao, Barakaldo, Irún and Getxo have no estimates of when it will be, and only studies of vehicles on the road and existing pollution were made to decide. Although Bilbao plans to buy cameras to read license plates.
San Sebastián plans to implement the ZBE in the center of the city, and while it has not yet defined which streets it will be limited to or what special restrictions it will entail, it has approved leasing the technology needed to make it work. , the work reserved for the outgoing group of 28M selections.
Without a enforcement mechanism forcing these cities to activate ZBEs, environmentalists chose to “request the public conscience for better air quality and review European funds that allocate €1,500 million to municipalities to execute these mobility plans”. , explains Duce.
Murcia It is another of the remaining communities when it comes to the implementation of ZBEs (something that corresponds to the municipality, not the regional government, in any case), since none of the four cities has to comply with this measure. The climate law—Murcia, Cartagena, Lorca, and Molina de Segura—fulfilled the task.
none ValenciaThe country’s third most populous city followed this rule: there the local government is working with the Mobility Board, which brings together more than 80 citizen entities to see how the ZBE is implemented, but it has not yet been launched.
Most of the municipalities Canary Islands (with the exception of one, La Laguna), Logroño, Oviedo, and Gijón are some of the many Spanish cities still waiting to activate their ZBE.
Inside Galicia The fastest advancing city is Pontevedra, with its own model based on complicating road traffic and facilitating pedestrian traffic.
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Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]