The Government hopes to approve the
Law on Sustainable Mobility and Financing of Transport
this year, a few months ahead of schedule, as revealed on Thursday by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda,
Raquel Sánchez
.
In addition, she has confirmed that the law
will allow municipalities to charge urban tolls
, or congestion charges, to polluting vehicles that
circulate in low-emission zones
that will be mandatory in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
"
Our intention is to bring the preliminary draft law to the Council of Ministers
for a second reading soon, after incorporating the contributions and observations of the rest of the ministries. But, in any case,
the scenario that we set for ourselves is to be able to approve the law during this year
. We have time within the commitments of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan", said the minister during the presentation of the
Global Mobility Call
, the international congress on sustainable mobility that will take place
between June 14 and 16
at the Fairgrounds IFEMA of Madrid.
“
We said that we would approve it in 2023, so we are going ahead of time
, and our intention would be to approve it during this year,” insisted the head of Transport, who also confirmed the possibility of municipalities establishing fees or tolls for vehicle access to the center of cities.
"
Indeed, the possibility of establishing rates by the municipalities
to charge for circulation in the low emission zones (ZBE)" is foreseen, said the minister.
As Raquel Sánchez clarified, the Sustainable Mobility Law will contemplate the application of urban tolls, but "
it will be the municipalities that determine to apply or activate that rate
for circulation in low emission zones".
"It will be the municipalities that will be able to implement these rates and the law empowers them so that, within the framework of their powers, they can apply them," added the minister, who recalled that
municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants
will have to implement
low-emission zones no later than 2023
.
"The rest of the municipalities also have the possibility of doing so. The criteria or recommendations to indicate, identify and qualify low-emission zones must be defined," she added.
Global Mobility Call
The minister assured that Madrid will be the
"world epicenter of sustainable mobility"
in June, on the occasion of the Global Mobility Call (GMC).
In her opinion, this congress will be
"the largest mobility event" in
the world and will mark "a before and after" in the transport sector of the urban environment and rural mobility.
Both infrastructure and energy will be "essential" issues to face
"the colossal challenge posed by climate change"
, which in turn implies the transformation of mobility patterns.
"It is a historic opportunity to achieve non-polluting modes of transport"
,
Sánchez extolled the great potential of sustainable mobility, using data such as the fact that autonomous vehicles will exceed an
investment of six billion euros in 2050 throughout the world
or that in Spain connectivity, electrification and the electric car will contribute
15% to GDP in 2030
.
For his part, the president of the executive committee of IFEMA Madrid,
José Vicente de los Mozos
, emphasized that this is the first European mobility fair in which private companies will participate and that its objective is to position Spain as a center of sustainable mobility around the world.
"We have set out to lead the mobility ecosystem, we want to generate business and position Spain as a sustainable mobility hub in the world," said De Los Mozos, who announced that
King Felipe VI
will hold the honorary presidency of Global Mobility Call.
In addition, he announced that the President of the Government,
Pedro Sánchez
, will close the congress, which will also be attended by Raquel Sánchez, as well as the Ministers of Industry,
Reyes Maroto
, and of Ecological Transition,
Teresa Ribera
, together with 220 speakers and representatives of companies such as
Renfe, Adif, Banco Santander, Renault, Microsoft, Iberdrola, Iberia, Aena, Airbus, Cepsa, Acciona, Repsol or Mapfre
, among others.
To put the importance of mobility in context, De Los Mozos cited a report from the Spanish Association of Car and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac) that forecasts a turnover in this sector of
more than 310,000 million euros by 2040
, with
between 800 and 1.4 million jobs
and concentrating
5% of GDP in Spain
.
"
We have set out to lead, on a global scale, the mobility ecosystem by
incorporating essential sectors such as
transport
, the
automotive industry
,
infrastructure
, engineering, strategic consulting, logistics, finance, energy, insurance, technology... and thus to all those who participate internationally in projects focused on the new mobility of people and goods", emphasized De los Mozos.
A total of 26 sponsors
and
33 national and 12 international industry associations
have joined the project ,
and the participation of
more than 7,000 professionals
is expected .
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more
Transportation and Tourism
Rachel Sanchez Jimenez