Can a bill as necessary as the Sustainable Mobility bill tiptoe through the Congress of Deputies? Given the enormous importance of the matter to be regulated, due to the important repercussions that the activity of transport and mobility has on the lives of citizens, on public health and the environment, should this law not be worthy of a debate? in deep?
The bill, which has begun to be processed in Congress, has major shortcomings, but it undoubtedly can and should be improved through parliamentary debate. From a health point of view, the transport-mobility sector is currently one of the main responsible for the poor quality of the air we breathe.
Air pollution is responsible for more than 300,000 premature deaths in Europe and around 20,000 in Spain each year, in addition to causing significant health costs. This is stated in the report “Air quality in Europe 2022” from the European Environment Agency (EEA).
According to EEA analysis, air pollution continues to pose significant health risks in Europe, causing chronic diseases and premature deaths.
For example, in 2020, 96% of the EU urban population was exposed to concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) above the WHO guidance level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) of air.
Air pollution is also detrimental to biodiversity and damages agricultural crops and forests, causing significant economic losses. Regarding climate change, the transport sector is the main responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Spain.
In 2022, this sector contributed 30.7% of the total of these emissions, as stated in the “National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report.” Edition 2024 (1990-2022)” (March 2024) of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
By itself, road transport accounted for 28.4% of the total GHG emissions in the aforementioned Inventory. However, the Sustainable Mobility bill, among other notable shortcomings, does not include in its articles the obligation to achieve climate neutrality of the transport-mobility sector no later than the year 2050 or intermediate objectives for reducing GHG emissions for 2030 and 2040 in relation to the levels existing in 1990.
Nor does it incorporate objectives for reducing air pollution caused by this sector. Furthermore, we have given up on establishing a stable financing scheme for public transport – one of our pending issues -, which leaves this issue to the discretion of the Government in power.
There is enormous potential for improvement of the Sustainable Mobility bill. Without a doubt, this should include specific measures for sustainable and electrified mobility in rural areas (an area completely forgotten by this legislative proposal), duly adapted to the idiosyncrasy of these territories.
In relation to the latter, concrete just transition measures should be introduced and the concept of “transport poverty” and measures to combat it should be incorporated.
Likewise, it should integrate energy efficiency throughout its articles, opting for a multimodal transport system suitable in terms of efficiency that has public transport and the three most sustainable modes as its backbone: pedestrian, cyclist and rail. .
Within the urban space, priority should clearly be given to non-motorized mobility. With respect to the railway, in addition to eliminating the mechanism that includes the closure of supposedly “inefficient” train lines, the recovery of cross-border connections and night trains must be included and serious consideration should be given to putting Spain at the level of the EU in the percentage of goods transported by rail.
We just need to look beyond the Pyrenees and see how far behind we are in these aspects. As other EU countries are already doing, the bill should include measures to reduce the serious social, environmental and climate impacts of air transport, such as the elimination of domestic flights for which there is an existing rail alternative. and adequate in terms of travel time, connectivity and security.
Most trips on weekdays are made to go to work. In this sense, the bill must significantly improve the approach it makes to sustainable mobility plans for work, so that they reflect the reality of the business fabric of Spain.
It is certainly contradictory that a law called “sustainable mobility” considers liquefied natural gas, a fossil fuel with a very high climate warming potential (80 times more than CO2 in a 20-year perspective), a priority for its deployment in ports. and supply to maritime transport.
It is difficult for us to decarbonize our transportation system if the future sustainable mobility law gives explicit support to the use of certain fossil fuels.
Instead, the law should set out a roadmap with concrete and ambitious targets for the deployment of zero-emission renewable fuels derived from green hydrogen for aviation and maritime transport.
Unlike road transport in any of its forms (in which battery electric vehicles are the most efficient and clean option), air and maritime transport are two sectors that have a very difficult time decarbonizing through direct electrification.
To discuss all these issues, the 15 social, union, environmental and youth entities that are working together to try to improve the content of the Sustainable Mobility Law project, have organized an in-person debate in the Congress of Deputies this Monday, 15 April.
With this debate, we want to know, in the first round table, what approaches the Ministries of Health, Transport and Sustainable Mobility and Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge have on the socio-economic, climatic, environmental and health impacts of the current transport-mobility system .
And, in a second round table, understand the position of the parliamentary groups of the Congress of Deputies on this bill and what proposals for improvement they present to ensure that the future Sustainable Mobility Law is the appropriate instrument to achieve a multimodal transportation system. decarbonized, healthy, efficient, sustainable, fair and inclusive transport in Spain. April 9, 2024.
Carlos Bravo, on behalf of the Climate Alliance, Association of Brands and Bicycles of Spain (AMBE), Workers’ Commissions (CC.OO.), ConBici, Spanish Youth Council (CJE), Ecologists in Action (EeA), Eco-Union, Federation of Consumers and Users CECU, Ecology and Development Foundation (ECODES), Renewable Foundation, Greenpeace, Platform for a New Energy Model (Px1NME), Promotion of Public Transport (PTP), Transport
