Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

The City Council, the Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area have appealed against the ruling by the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) annulling the current by-law on the Barcelona Low Emission Zone (LEZ). The three administrations reaffirm their obligation to protect people’s right to health and note that the ruling goes against European and state regulations.

The act on climate change and energy transition actually obliges cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants to actively enforce a low emission zone. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has already announced penalties for non-compliance with the pollution limits and the World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking to reduce the permitted pollution thresholds. In addition, the appeals argue that it is not disproportionate to apply restrictions based on data from the two stations in the city, as these represent the majority of streets with the same make-up and characteristics.

The appeals strengthen the commitment of all administrations to speed up the rollout of the LEZ and cut pollution in the city, and to defend it against the climate emergency.

Update to the municipal by-law

In parallel to the appeals lodged, work is also being carried out to bring the municipal by-law for the LEZ up to date. Nine organisations, various stakeholders and citizens are taking part in the process to ensure its implementation and if necessary to improve it, through a participatory process. Once the debate concludes, a process will begin to approve the new updated by-law.

The LEZ covers five metropolitan municipalities (Barcelona, Hospitalet de Llobregat and part of the municipalities of Cornellà de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat and Sant Adrià de Besòs). It has been an example for implementing LEZs in the rest of Spain. The rollout of the measure has helped cut journeys in highly pollutant vehicles by over 600,000.

According to the WHO, air pollution is the main environmental risk for big cities as it increases premature deaths and shortens people’s life expectancy, particularly affecting children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with health problems.

The improvement in air quality, based on the changes applied in the city, has helped reduce annual deaths by 125 (0.8% of all deaths) compared to the figures from 2017, along with 5% of new children’s asthma cases (110 cases a year) and 1% of new lung cancer cases (15 cases a year).