The Sustainable Mobility Bill, in its current wording, is more of a mere declaration of intent than a true law. The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), promoter of this law, has drafted a text notoriously lacking in ambition and lacking the necessary specification to effectively advance in the decarbonisation of the transport sector, which is the main emitter of gases greenhouse effect in Spain, with almost 30% of the total of these emissions.
Given the important contribution of transport to climate change, it is incomprehensible that Mitma has not included in the articles of this bill the obligation to achieve climate neutrality in this sector as soon as possible by 2050 and that it has not established intermediate reduction targets either. of greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 and 2040 in relation to the levels existing in 1990.
The bill, in its Article 1. OBJECT AND PURPOSE OF THE LAW, only includes a generic reference to “achieve the objectives of reducing greenhouse gases and other pollutants and improving air quality”, without specifying or sectorizing said objectives or refer to objectives established by another standard or international commitments.
The Sustainable Mobility Bill project does not even include a legislative link with the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec) 2021-2030 in force, which sets the goal for Spain to achieve a reduction of 27 million tons of CO2-eq in transport-mobility by 2030, which would mean a 33% reduction in emissions in this sector.
Has the Mitma already forgotten that the Executive of which it is a part declared a climate and environmental emergency in Spain? Indeed, on January 21, 2020, the Council of Ministers solemnly approved a Declaration in this regard, verifying the “unprecedented” impact that the current development model has had on the climate system.
In that Declaration it was affirmed that the “only possible path” we have is to achieve climate neutrality. To this end, the Government approved a series of commitments and measures, one of which was to adopt a Law on Sustainable Mobility and Public Transport Financing.
Unfortunately, everything seems to indicate that, yes, the Ministry has completely forgotten about that Declaration that it signed. In his forgetfulness, he has also finally forgotten to include in the title of the bill the expression “financing of public transport”, disappointing the expectations that the Government itself had created in this regard.
The truth is that in the bill there is an unfortunate lack of commitment and specificity to establish a true financing of public transport.
The articles say that there will be a maximum contribution from the State to finance the operating costs of the collective urban public passenger transport service, but it does not establish a minimum contribution, nor does it contemplate a financing plan that indicates the sources of income of the that the law must be nurtured. Without sufficient funding for public transport, it will be impossible to guarantee a modal shift among citizens that results in more sustainable mobility.
The aforementioned bill has begun its parliamentary process. The 14 union, social, environmental and youth organizations that are working together to try to improve the articles of this law have met with the vast majority of the parliamentary groups of the Congress of Deputies and have held a debate webinar where representatives have participated of seven of those groups.
All of them, with the exception of the Socialist Parliamentary Group, have affirmed that it is an unambitious law, that it disappoints the expectations that were held about it and that it should include specific decarbonisation objectives. On the contrary, the socialist representative has insisted that a law does not have to establish specific objectives. So why are laws made?
For our part, we have presented to the parliamentary groups a document with 64 proposals for amendments to improve the text of the Sustainable Mobility bill, of course setting specific objectives in many aspects. We hope that thanks to the work of the parliamentary groups, it will finally be possible for this bill to:
-Include in its articles the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 and 2040 and climate neutrality for 2050 previously referred to.
-Introduce regulatory elements to implement fair transport taxation.
-Collect specific measures for sustainable mobility in rural areas, duly adapted to the idiosyncrasies of these territories.
-Incorporate energy efficiency criteria: opting for an adequate multimodal transport system in terms of efficiency that has public transport as its backbone and the three most sustainable modes: pedestrian, cyclist and rail and, in addition, giving due priority to electromobility in the transport of passengers and goods by road.
-Include measures to reduce the serious social, environmental and climatic impacts of air transport, such as the elimination of domestic flights for which there is an existing and adequate rail alternative in terms of travel time, connectivity and safety.
-Set a roadmap with concrete objectives for the deployment of zero-emission renewable fuels derived from green hydrogen for aviation and maritime transport, and eliminate the explicit reference to the use of a fossil fuel such as liquefied natural gas in the latter.
-Duely promote the railway both for the transport of passengers and goods (removing Spain from the European caboose in this last aspect) and eliminate the mechanism intended to close supposedly “inefficient” train lines.
-Improve the approach of sustainable mobility plans to work, so that they adequately reflect the reality of the business fabric of Spain.
-Give priority to active mobility, on foot and by bicycle, over motorized mobility in urban space planning.
-Introduce concrete just transition measures and incorporate the concept of transport poverty and measures to combat it.
In a context of climate emergency, unambiguously recognized by the Government, we cannot afford to miss the great opportunity to achieve, through the Sustainable Mobility Law, a decarbonised, efficient, sustainable, fair and inclusive multimodal transport system in Spain.
Hopefully the Government will reconsider in this regard and that parliamentary work will serve to ensure that the Sustainable Mobility Law can be remembered as the decisive legal instrument that allowed Spain to effectively comply with its commitments and obligations in the decarbonization of the transport sector- mobility.
Carlos Bravo, on behalf of the following organizations:
Association of Brands and Bicycles of Spain (AMBE), Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.), ConBici, Council of Youth of Spain (CJE), Ecologistas en Acción (EeA), Eco-Union, Federation of Consumers and Users CECU, Ecology and Development Foundation (Ecodes), Renewables Foundation, Greenpeace, Platform for a New Energy Model (Px1NME), Promotion of Public Transport (PTP), Transport
