Low Emission Zones on Tenerife and the Other Islands Became a Reality as of January 1, 2024, and therefore, the municipalities involved must align with the regulations.
Municipalities falling under the LEZ designation must implement these zones to retain mobility subsidies starting in 2025. We have already written three articles under this designation, detailing the modalities provided by the legislator to achieve a cleaner – or rather, healthier – urban environment.
Involved Municipalities
Municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants are in the final phase of implementing Low Emission Zones (LEZ), designed to reduce car traffic and lower pollution. After the extension in 2023, the deadline expired on December 31, 2024, but much work remains on Tenerife and the other major islands. According to population figures, some cities must meet the requirements and implement the LEZ zone in their municipality.
Tenerife: Santa Cruz de Tenerife (209,000 inhabitants), San Cristóbal de La Laguna (154,000), Arona (85,000), Granadilla de Abona (54,000), and Adeje (50,000). Gran Canaria: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (378,000), Telde (102,000), Santa Lucía de Tirajana (75,000), and San Bartolomé de Tirajana (53,000). Lanzarote: Arrecife (64,000).
No Active LEZ in the Canary Islands
On the Canary Islands Government’s website, we can see that the LEZ zones in all qualifying municipalities are either a work in progress or under review. The status is marked as ‘En trámite’, except for Santa Cruz, where it states ‘En proceso de aprobación’ – in the approval process.
Last year, the Ministry for Ecological Transition launched an interactive map that shows the administrative status of LEZs in cities. Note: this map is incomplete and outdated. On the Canary Islands, except for Santa Cruz, no city currently has an operational LEZ. Most projects are still under review, except for Arona and Telde, where the process has not yet started. Adeje is not mentioned on the map because the city only surpassed the 50,000 inhabitants threshold in 2023.
Confusing Terminology
The projects are coordinated by the regional department for Ecological Transition, which emphasizes that the rules must be streamlined across all cities. This prevents the LEZ in La Laguna from functioning differently than the one in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the furthest along, as the municipal government has taken it seriously and began the transition of the downtown area where the LEZ zone is planned. It is notable that some municipalities, according to Mariano Hernández Zapata, propose solutions that seem somewhat ‘fake.’ One example is the designation of already existing pedestrian areas or low traffic density zones as LEZ.
Sanctions for Misuse
The Ministry of Ecological Transition considers LEZs as ‘fake’ if they do not actually reduce traffic or pollution and only include cosmetic measures. As a result, meetings are being held to establish clear criteria for the correct implementation of these zones. Once these common rules are defined, municipalities that have received European subsidies could be sanctioned if they do not meet the requirements.
In addition to Ecological Transition, the Ministry of Transport is also prepared to take action against municipalities that do not comply. According to SER, cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must have an operational LEZ in order to continue receiving subsidies for public transportation. The Sustainable Mobility Plan will require municipalities to have an active LEZ to access subsidies starting in 2025.
The law 1052/2022, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), can be consulted [HERE]. This includes the Low Emission Zones on Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote. The other islands do not have municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Guy Devos © Photography
Low Emission Zones on Tenerife ©
More NEWS can be read [HERE].
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