With the sustainable mobility law In the urgent processing phase, ecologists are trying to convince parliamentary groups to include the abolition of short flights for journeys that can be made by train, following the example of France, a measure rejected at least by Vox, PP and Ciudadanos.
Representatives of the different parliamentary groups asked by EFE have valued this proposal among the options to reduce the climate impact of aviation days after learning that, for the first time, the monthly data on air passengers in Spain has exceeded pre-pandemic numbers. In January 2023, 16.93 million people traveled by plane from the airports in the Aena network, 2.1% more than in the same month of 2019 and 62.7% more than in January 2022.
In addition, at this time it is decided what the future sustainable mobility law will be like, a legislative project that environmental NGOs describe as “loose” because they judge that it does not propose “a road map” for decarbonize transport -the most emitting sector, with around 30% of national greenhouse gas emissions (in 2019)- but a mere “declaration of intent”, criticizes the spokesperson in Spain for Transport & Environment, Carlos Bravo.
The standard entered the process of finalization at the end of January. urgent processing, which implies that it does not have to go through the plenary for approval in Congress, but that all its preparation before going to the Senate would remain in the Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda Commission, unless the deputies vote on Thursday in favor of the legislative project being brought to the plenary session of the Lower House.
As it is, environmentalists have stepped on the accelerator to raise the ambition of the standard and include proposals such as the elimination of short flights for routes that already have a fast alternative by train -such as, for example, a trip between Madrid and Barcelona- and they have met these days with parliamentary groups to suggest this and other measures.
For now, they have only confirmed to EFE that they will support this specific proposal from More Country-Greens Equo, while Unidas Podemos has declined to answer and from the PSOE they have preferred not to pronounce yet on this controversial measure, claiming to want to “respect negotiations” that they currently maintain with the other parties.
Más País-Verdes Equo defends preventing short flights for those journeys “where there is already an alternative by train”, says the deputy Ines Sabanes, who points out that his idea is to go even “a step further” than France -a country that after receiving the green light from Brussels has already prohibited flights for routes within the national territory that can be carried out in less than two and a half hours by rail- and prohibit also private jets.
All this, he qualifies, “accompanied by a true strategy and promotion of the railway”, which his formation already proposed when the climate change law, account, but then “they told us that this would have to go into the sustainable mobility law”, so “now is the time” for the measure to be considered.
“Freedom to choose”
From the People’s Parliamentary Group they advance that by “ideology” They do not agree with the idea of eliminating short flights, since they predict that the transfer of air passengers to rail will take place of natural form and, especially, with the liberalization of the railway lines.
He Madrid-Barcelona air bridge According to the popular ones, it is “a good example” to show how free competition favors citizens organically opting for the train rather than the plane for their trips between the two cities, “without the need to prohibit”, PP sources emphasize.
In the same line, citizens rejects the possibility of suppressing flights in order to protect the “freedom to choose”, as explained to EFE by his deputy Juan Ignacio Lopez-Bas, who also underlines the commitment to the train which, he perceives, has increased thanks to the liberalization of lines such as Madrid and Barcelona and the consequent lowering of tickets.
The latest data from Aena, however, show that the Madrid-Barcelona connection continues to be the busiest domestic route both at Madrid and Barcelona airports.
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For their part, sources vox They have expressed their opposition to the measure, and have taken the opportunity to charge against the “climate radicalism that imposes its ideological postulates.”
From the Ministry for Ecological Transition They have explained in parallel that at the moment the Government “is not considering a measure similar to that of France”.