149 Spanish cities must have a low emission zone before 2023. And the only plan is that there is no plan

Fernando Alonso said of his famous Plan to win with Alpine that he himself did not know very well what the Plan was. “It is part of the plan not to know what The Plan is. That is The Plan: scaring the shit out of you without knowing,” the Spaniard confessed to Fernando Romay on television. And that is exactly what seems to be happening with the low emission zones. They should enter into force in just over three months. And there is no definite plan.

149 cities. Spain has 149 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. They are those that are obliged to “adopt sustainable mobility plans”, in the words contained in the new Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition that came to light last year. What does this mean? They must have low emission zones (ZBE).

As is happening in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​the best-known ZBEs in our country, the Spanish municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and those with more than 20,000 inhabitants in which deficient values ​​in environmental quality are collected, will have to take measures to reverse the situation . You can find a complete list at this Motorpasión article.

Nothing unspecified. The problem is that the aforementioned Law does not specify what measures should be taken by the municipalities. It only highlights that the possible restrictions will be taken into account “according to the classification of vehicles by their level of emissions in accordance with the provisions of the current General Vehicle Regulations.”

These words, however, do not indicate which labels may or may not access the low emission zones. In Madrid, for example, they cannot circulate vehicles without a label that are not residents, but those with a B and C label, can travel inside the M-30. The latter, however, can do so through the central almond (former Madrid Central) but with restrictions. Even those labeled as ECO and Zero emissions do not have the same advantages.

And to the above we must add that it is not established fixed criteria to evaluate the effectiveness or what should be the appropriate measures. The Royal Decree to regulate Low Emission Zones specifies “as the ultimate goal, compliance with the updated version of the WHO Guidelines on air quality”. However, decisions are only required to involve “significant and sufficient” changes to meet these requirements.

Only one interest: fewer cars. Throughout the Law, only one clear measure related to private vehicles is specified to improve air quality: reduce their number. “The access and circulation criteria must be aimed at discouraging private motorized vehicle access as much as possible in general, regardless of the environmental label it bears,” reads the Law.

The Guide. To clarify what measures the consistories may take, the Government published a document called: Guidelines for the creation of Low Emission Zones (ZBE). It specified the new sign that we will see in the low-emission zones to explain to the public that they could not go inside. That sign did not include the letter B of the DGT, but this does not mean that these cars cannot enter these spaces.

In addition, ZBE types like the ones you can see just above were proposed. This means that they do not all have to be concentrated in the city center and that small restrictions can be specified in places where they are considered most necessary (schools and hospitals) or where there is especially bad air quality (industrial centers).

What about my car? Basically, there will be cities in which we will not be able to circulate with it, others in which we have all the streets open and others in which we will only be able to access part of it. As we say, the plans that are approved in each city remain unknown in most of them.

We do know that, taking Madrid and Barcelona as a reference, cars without an environmental label have a much more complicated future than any other. In Barcelona they cannot move around the Metropolitan Area of ​​Barcelona (AMB, which includes nearby municipalities) between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., whether they are residents or not, although the prohibition is still in force, it is in the hands of justice. In Madrid the plans are being progressive but it will not be possible to circulate with them after 2025, regardless of whether or not their drivers are from Madrid.

five cities. A few months before ZBEs are mandatory in 149 cities, only five of them had one last May. To Madrid and Barcelona we must add Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Sant Joan Despí and Sant Cugat del Vallès. In addition, another 64 cities according to Maldita.es were working in these low emission zones.

In other words, in May another 80 municipalities did not have a ZBE or a project underway to have one. The only certain thing we know is that on January 1, 2023, the 149 municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in Spain must have low-emission zones that, for the time being, remain to be defined and will be different in each space.

Photo | Lisa Risarger