The alliance of entities in favor of clean transport, made up of 14 non-governmental organizations (unions, social, youth and environmental entities), has demanded greater ambition from the PSOE in the future Sustainable Mobility Law, which has begun to debate the Congress of the Deputies.
“The law, in its current wording, forgets about the climate crisis; It mentions it but does not incorporate any decarbonization objective”, sums up Carlos Bravo, spokesperson for Transport and Environment, one of the signatory entities of a manifesto denouncing the shortcomings of the bill in process.
These entities denounce that the PSOE bill does not include the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050; that is to say, to achieve a balance of zero emissions by the middle of the century. "The law must incorporate in its articles the objective of achieving climate neutrality as soon as possible, with concrete and quantifiable intermediate objectives to reduce emissions in 2030 and 2040, always with respect to 1990, of course," insists Bravo.
The PSOE argues that the bill "respects and adjusts" to the integrated national energy and climate plan (where they set global targets to reduce gases); but these entities see this absence as unjustifiable.
Transport in Spain is the sector with the greatest weight in gas emissions (29.6% of the total).
The alliance maintains that the bill does not take energy efficiency into account either, "it totally forgets about the electrification of road transport", and relegates the use of the railway, without a commitment to other modes of clean mobility (pedestrian, cyclist...)
“No mention is made of electric mobility; nor to the installation of recharging points”, they lament. In this sense, one of the proposals that they have delivered to the parliamentary groups proposes that manufacturers guide their production so that from 2035 all new freight trucks (and that are sold from that date) are electric or without emissions of CO2. In the case of trucks for industrial use and services (cranes, firefighters, garbage) it is proposed that they be clean from 2040.
The alliance of entities in favor of clean mobility defends encouraging a transfer of goods from the road to the rail (“because it is much more efficient”), a circumstance not provided for by law, despite the fact that Spain only transports by rail between a 3 and 4% of their merchandise.
For this reason, they propose as an objective a modal share of 18% in 2030 with respect to the total merchandise transported by land (as occurs in Europe); and at least 35% in 2040, to achieve true competitiveness.
There is also concern about the fact that the law introduces a mechanism to close train lines if they are inefficient or unprofitable, while the NGOs claim to prevent this risk of degradation of the rail service with improvements and adaptation of it to the needs and schedules of the user. “If a line gives bad service, arrives late, has horrible hours and doesn't work for you, well, of course you don't use it,” says Bravo.
They complain of "a favorable treatment" towards road transport, as they deduce from the difficulties imposed on the opening of new railways, which will be conditioned on not causing damage in the form of loss of passengers on the lines. buses that make the same journey on the road). "It is so difficult to put new railway lines that a ban is almost established," says Carlos Bravo. "You have to create lines that guarantee their economic and social profitability," he sums up.
Likewise, they demand the obligation to establish a plan to promote electric mobility in the rural world and the preparation of a state plan for the deployment of recharging points in municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants and areas of low population density in order to to promote the electrification of road transport.
For these entities, it is also key that quantified objectives are included on the improvement of air quality, taking into account the forecast of a new directive that will reduce the limit of the concentrations of polluting substances. Specifically, it is requested that by 2030 all Spanish cities comply with the guide values of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Another demand is that public administrations, collaboratively, design and implement a high-quality basic cycling network, separate from motorized traffic.
The NGOs ask that the law include a reinforcement of the delimitation of low emission zones (and improve their current wording "poor", included in a royal decree), as well as a modification of the environmental labels of the DGT so that the classification Of these badges, take into account the indicator of CO2 emissions, which heat the atmosphere (and not only that of air pollution, NOx and others), so that the ECO label is eliminated (crossed out as "false and confusing" ) because it includes natural gas vehicles (which emits CO2) or plug-in hybrids, which operate most of the time with a combustion engine.
“In maritime and air transport, objectives are not implemented to incorporate zero-emission electrofuels either; And what is more serious, in maritime transport, it is indicated that natural gas will be promoted, something inappropriate for a sustainable mobility law, ”adds Bravo.
The alliance also includes CC.OO. and UGT, the Public Transport Promotion Association, the Youth Council of Spain, Ecodes, the Fundación Renovables, Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, CECU, the Bicycle Defense Coordinator, the Association of Brands and Bicycles of Spain, Eco-union and the Platform for a New Energy Model.
Of the 64 proposed amendments that have been submitted, 60 have been taken into account by the parties, 43 have been fully incorporated and the rest have only been partially considered. ERC, Más País, Unidas Podemos and Bildu have been the most receptive parties; and have assumed most of these proposals. They have also managed to get PNV, PDECat and PP to accept some; but, on the other hand, PSOE has not accepted any amendment, which has disappointed these entities, which have not met with Vox
