According to the recently approved Mobility Plan, La Laguna accounts for 6.6% of the CO2 emissions in the Canary Islands, mainly due to the effects of private traffic
Rubens Ascanio Gómez, co-spokesperson and councillor for Unidas se puede in La Laguna, denounces two years of blockage in the development of Low Emission Zones, which were presented and worked on during the previous mandate.
The Environment and Sustainable Mobility departments worked between 2021 and 2023 on the development of the first Low Emission Zones, as stipulated in Royal Decree 1052/2022, of 27 December. During this period, technical reports were made on the model and a proposal for areas to develop measures, which were also consulted with the public. Additionally, the first emission control systems were implemented in the chosen areas for this first phase, to establish parameters for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Remember that in July 2019, La Laguna became the first municipality in the Canary Islands to declare a climate emergency, committing to promote measures to reduce CO2 emissions and encourage green projects. This declaration aligned with other populations in the European Union and sought to implement actions to mitigate the effects of climate change, pioneering in the Archipelago.
The previous government team, when developing the Low Emission Zones, chose not to penalise families with greater difficulties in accessing low-emission vehicles, opting instead for calmer traffic with parking areas reserved for the local neighbourhood, as well as reinforcing public transport and improving the accessibility of pavements.
According to the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMUS) of La Laguna, approved in the past mandate, the pollution generated by traffic demands in 2022 amounted to around 451.4 tn/year of NO2, and nearly 270,000 tn/year of CO2, while PM 2.5 emissions (from traffic particles) are estimated at 38 tn/year. These figures indicate that La Laguna generates 6.6% of the total CO2 emissions in the Canary Islands. The outcome is showing as very deficient, tripling the minimum value established by the indicator, “for this and other reasons, there is a need to develop Low Emission Zones in municipalities like ours, in addition to the other actions outlined in the PMUS.”
Ascanio recalls that after the PSOE-CC agreement, the Mobility area took on the task of drafting the Ordinance needed for the LEZs, which, in the previous mandate, was linked to Citizen Security due to traffic control measures and penalties set for non-compliance. “In these two years it is evident that the government of La Laguna is aligning with municipalities governed by the right, which annul or block the development of these measures that represent an improvement of urban spaces, the development of protected local parking areas, and the reduction of pollution,” he explains.
The Lagunera party hopes that the dual public exposure process of the document produced will be taken into account, after the contract for its design was awarded in March 2022 to the Alomon Consultancy, a consulting company specialised in Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Cities, with more than 20 years of experience in the sector. “It would be difficult to understand if this work is questioned now, especially by those who shared government with our group and knew of the actions being implemented,” he asserts.
From Unidas se puede, they lament the lack of interest in everything related to progress in sustainability, even having the first approved Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. They assert that they now possess tools that facilitate issuing these legally established zones where the municipality is in violation. They add, explaining that “with this document, the municipality can request external funding, which we could not access in the previous mandate due to the lack of such an important document as this one.”
