Spain drafts Sustainable Mobility Law with firm commitment to new technologies

The Government will allocate 13 billion euros to these policies in 2023

The Spanish Government is drafting a Sustainable Mobility Law that will be “a fundamental tool” in its goal of modernising this aspect of society. The text includes a firm commitment to new technologies, from autonomous vehicles to on-demand transport and shared mobility. It also aims to strengthen financing of the urban public transport system and increase its reliability, as well as seeking to improve collaboration between the various public authorities, make intermodality and interoperability a reality and improve infrastructure governance.

The Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, has announced that the draft bill for the Sustainable Mobility Law will be submitted to the Congress of Deputies this year. Before reaching this stage, it will be submitted to the Council of Ministers, which is expected to give the green light to the text on second reading in the coming weeks.

Dependence on fossil fuels
The new law also supports the Secure, Sustainable and Connected Mobility Strategy 2030, and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) in its goal of decarbonising and digitising mobility, as well as boosting the use of public transport to decrease the use of private vehicles. It does in this way aim to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, thereby improving air quality.

As the minister explained, the PRTR aims to reduce traffic in low-emission zones by 35% and for rail freight transport to achieve a 10% share by 2030. The Sustainable Mobility Strategy aims to turn Spain into a worldwide point of reference for sustainable mobility, which, according to Prime Minister Sánchez, means “creating 180,000 highly qualified jobs in the medium term, and contributing around 20 billion euros to the Gross Domestic Product”.

Regulatory framework
With a budget for 2023 of 13 billion euros to be spent on sustainable mobility policies, eight billion of which will be allocated to railways, the new Sustainable Mobility Act will provide these strategies with a regulatory framework that, according to the Minister, “meets all the requirements for radically transforming Spain’s transport system and promoting the modernisation of mobility and increased collaboration between authorities”. With respect to the latter, a national mobility system will be created based on this shared information.

Environmental protection and the fight against climate change are high on the Ministry's agenda. As Prime Minister Sánchez argues, “We’re using every means at our disposal to confront the greatest challenge of our time. And that includes transforming mobility and decarbonising our transport system.”

These objectives are even more necessary in Spain, where 27.5% of greenhouse gas emissions are generated by transport, a figure that is five points higher than the European average. Moreover, this sector accounts for 40% of final energy consumption, almost nine points above the continental average. As 70% of emissions are produced in cities, the new law will create a sustainable mobility contribution fund to regulate the Spanish State's contributions to financing the urban public transport system.

Photo: lamoncloa.gob.es