THE ZBE (Low Emission Zones) They have entered the vocabulary of many citizens since we began to think about and consider them ten years ago. These urban environments were born as a space in which the most polluting vehicles are restricted, which … which in Spain determines the environmental label granted by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) to new registrants.
The promoters of the initiative defend that these restrictions contribute to improving air quality and constitute an important element in the fight against climate change and noise and environmental pollution in cities. However, in practice they constitute a serious setback for those who, for one reason or another, have a obsolete vehicle emissions regulations.
In fact, there are those who use their car daily to go to work or study and fear that the time will come when their vehicle could be banned. For this reason, there has been debate for years about when the restrictions would come into force and Barcelona and its metropolitan area was one of the most advanced areas in this area. That same year, the Generalitat took a step forward and announced that cars with label Bthe most popular in today’s vehicle fleet.
A new air quality plan
Concretely, last summer, the Government approved, by decree, the “Air quality plan, horizon 2027”with 84 measures and 386 actions to improve air quality, and therefore people’s health. Among them, policies to reduce polluting emissions stand out, partly with measures on motorized transport, and therefore a key role is played by the ZBEs, located in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Thus, new regulations for these zones have been established and it has been confirmed that vehicles with the yellow sticker (environmental label B) will have a right of veto in the ZBEs from January 2026Yes, first on certain specific days when alerts of high pollution levels are issued. These days are generally exceptional nowadays and occur on rare occasions throughout the year.
The measurement will now become common, and not only on days of high pollution, January 2028. If there is no change, from January 3, 2028 (since 1 and 2 will fall on a weekend), vehicles with the B label will no longer be able to enter ZBEs.
In addition, the Generalitat also included in last summer’s Plan an additional measure so that each population with more than 20,000 inhabitants have a total veto on the circulation of all vehicles without an environmental label from 2026. There, in 2028, all those with the B label will also be banned.
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