The Climate Change and Energy Transition Law promoted by the Government establishes that all Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must have their own Low Emission Zones (ZBE) operational by 2023. It is an area delimited by a public Administration, in which applies restrictions on access, circulation and parking of vehicles to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, in accordance with their environmental classification.
The law was published in November 2021 and affects 149 municipalities, to which must be added cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants that exceed the limit values for regulated pollutants. However, today there are very few cities that have an area free of polluting vehicles, since at first the Government only released the guidelines for the creation of ZBEs and it was not until the end of December last year. when it approved Royal Decree 1052/2022 that regulates Low Emission Zones.
The only municipalities that have done their homework and have their own Low Emission Zone in operation belong to five different communities. The RACE interactive map indicates that these areas are operational in three municipalities in Catalonia (Barcelona, Badalona and Sant Joan Despí), two in Andalusia (Seville and Córdoba), two in the Community of Madrid (Madrid and Rivas-Vaciamadrid) and in Valencia capital and Pontevedra (Galicia).
Until next December 31, they must be joined by the rest of the towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants and those with more than 20,000 whose air quality is harmful to health.
As a general rule, only vehicles with the DGT environmental label (B, C, ECO and 0 emissions) are authorized to circulate in the Low Emission Zones. Therefore, cars without a label, which are around 10 million, according to Traffic data, are the biggest losers, since they are banned from accessing the city center.
However, there are so many municipal criteria for access to these areas that it can be affirmed that each LEZ has its own particularities in terms of prohibitions, delimitations, schedules, etc. Faced with this disparity in criteria, RACE has published a guide on its website that includes the specifications established by each municipality in order to help motorists.
Users can access this information through this link where they will find an interactive map to consult the different LEZs that are currently active. For now there are only the nine mentioned above and it will be updated as the others start up.
By clicking on the autonomous community that we want to consult, the municipalities that have an active LEZ appear. When accessing the town that interests us, the map will redirect us to another page that will offer us all the information about the Low Emission Zone.
First we are going to see a map of the city with the restricted area and then the particularities of said ZBE. Through various sections, the page offers us detailed information on authorized vehicles, permitted environmental labels, schedules and exceptions for driving in the Low Emission Zone.
The modification of the Law on Traffic, Circulation of Motor Vehicles and Road Safety includes as a novelty the new infractions derived from the Low Emission Zones. In this way, the new Law establishes that the fact of not respecting the movement restrictions derived from the application of the protocols in the event of contamination episodes and LEZs will be considered serious. The economic sanction for infringing these rules will be a fine of 200 euros, but in no case will it lead to the deduction of points from the card.
