Cars entering Barcelona via the Dalt ring road in front of an information sign for the low emission zone (ZBE), in an archive image. Carles Ribas
A good and a bad news. The good news is that in 2023, for the first time since records began, Barcelona will meet the European directive's nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution limits of 40 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³, barring a disaster). From January to November, the average at the seven stations where air pollution is measured was between 16 and 34 µg/m³, below the values that last year led the European justice system to punish Spain for systematic non-compliance with the limits 2010 condemned in the cities of Barcelona and also Madrid. This was announced by the deputy mayor and chairwoman of the municipal council's ecological transition department, Laia Bonet, this Tuesday.
The bad news is that if the current maximum levels are tightened by half in 2030 or 2035, as the European Commission and Parliament have proposed (reducing the upper limit from 40 to 20 micrograms of NO2 per cubic meter), with January data By November this year, only three of the seven stations measuring pollution in Barcelona would meet the requirements. The World Health Organization (WHO) is even more demanding and believes that harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide should be below 10 micrograms per cubic meter.
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Bonet celebrated the closing dates for 2023 and linked them to the low emission zone (ZBE), which since 2020 has banned entry to the city for the most polluting vehicles, that is, those that do not have an eco-label from the General Directorate of Transport (DGT). Given the proximity of the new limits and repeated questions about whether Mayor Jaume Collboni's government is planning new restrictions, Bonet has avoided going into details. “This year we will not exceed the European limits, but we are all aware that the requirements for atmospheric quality will increase and we are working towards this,” he explained repeatedly and without going into detail.
It has closed its doors on issues that have a big impact on citizens, such as whether the next step will be to restrict the movement of cars with a yellow sticker (the B sticker), which was put on the table in the last parliamentary term . “We want to take responsibility, we do not want to rely on predetermined apriorisms,” he argued about measures that must be discussed between the administrations that designed the ZBE (Town Hall, Generalitat and Metropolitan Region). Regarding whether there was a scheduled date for a meeting, he admitted that there was not, but assured that the issue “will be discussed at every opportunity” where representatives of the three administrations meet. “I do not want to enter, an attitude of closed proposals and the desire to influence is not helpful,” he replied to the insistence on the city's positioning.
Bonet also celebrated and attributed to the ZBE that the current fleet is becoming less and less polluting: for the first time, the cars with ECO label are at 24.7%, surpassing those with the yellow label (B) at 18%. Vehicles with a green label (C) make up 52%, vehicles without a label are “residual vehicles”, in the words of the deputy mayor, 1.2%. Vehicles with a zero label make up 4% of the fleet. Data showing “that the ZBE works.” Bonet also celebrated this, although the fleet is aging and in Barcelona the age measurement of vehicles is 11.2 years, with data from 2022. The Spanish average is 13, 9 years.
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The tram to Francesc Macià, now railway work awaits
With the extension of the tram along the diagonal between Glòries and Verdaguer in the last section, the second phase up to Francesc Macià is also emerging in the presentation of data on environmental pollution. On Tuesday, Bonet announced in the Urban Planning Commission that the schedule for completing the unification of the two tram networks will depend on the work to extend the L8 of the Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat between Plazas de Espanya and Francesc Macià. “I have said it three times and I repeat it: this city government is for the tram along the diagonal, but the calendar cannot be approved by proposal. [la que presentaron los comunes y obligaron a Bonet a posicionarse]“We are examining the impact of the two works on the area surrounding the square,” he repeated this Wednesday. On Tuesday, Bonet was involved in a dispute with his predecessor, Councilor Janet Sanz, over the matter, and ordinary people interpreted the government's words as a “blockade of the tram connection.”
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