All Catalan towns of more than 20,000 population will be Low Emission Zones by 2025

All Catalan towns of more than 20,000 population will be declared Low Emission Zones by 2025. 

Low Emission Zones are specific areas that restrict the circulation of older, more polluting vehicles, and Barcelona adopted the regulation on January 1, 2020

The measure is estimated to affect some 50,000 vehicles in the Catalan capital and sees fines given to drivers whose vehicles are not allowed to enter the Low Emission Zone at certain times of the day.

A document signed on Friday by the Catalan government and city councils will see the environmental regulation extended to many more municipalities. 

Under Spanish law, any town or city with more than 50,000 inhabitants are required to be Low Emission Zones, as well as those with populations over 20,000 that already had high emission levels, but this new government document extends the rule to those towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants and low levels of pollution. 

The implementation of the new air quality improvement regulation will be done gradually. Some will be converted to Low Emission Zones in 2023 and 2024 before the rollout is fully applied by 2025.

The document signed by authorities is designed to reduce pollution from cars by 15% in the next three years.