Sustainable Mobility Law: A Half-Baked Text in the Race Towards Decarbonization

By mid-2025, the Sustainable Mobility Law, the major legislative bet to transform transport in Spain, is in political limbo. After closing its committee stage on June 11th, the bill awaits its vote in the Transport Committee, pending parliamentary support that the government has not yet secured.

The text, born with the ambition of responding to the climate emergency, has been stalled for weeks due to political tensions unrelated to its content, plunging the sector, especially hauliers, into a state of uncertainty about the rules that will govern their immediate future. Its overarching purpose of creating a safe, intermodal, and low-carbon system clashes with the harsh reality of negotiation.

The core of the law directly affects freight carriers. The draft text includes measures that, in the long run, aim to improve efficiency and reduce overall operational costs, such as promoting rail motorways and incentives for shifting goods to trains. However, it also poses immediate challenges: the review within a year of the Directorate-General for Transport’s labeling to include CO2 emissions could restrict access of older trucks to cities sooner than expected, and the future ban on short-haul flights with a train alternative of under 2.5 hours could reshape part of urgent logistics. The promise to simplify the installation of electric charging points is good news for the future, but it does not resolve the current anxiety over the lack of infrastructure.

The greatest harm for the guild is not so much in the letter of the law, but in the uncertainty generated by its delay. The paralysis makes it impossible to know for certain when and how new tax rules will be applied, the definitive criteria for Low Emission Zones, or the real deadlines for adapting fleets. This lack of certainty hinders investments: a self-employed driver or an SME will not risk financing an electric truck without knowing the exact schedule for aid or restrictions. The sector needs a stable framework to plan its necessary, but extremely costly, transition.

The current draft is already the result of intense negotiations and has incorporated more than 140 amendments. Some contentious points have been softened, such as the liberalization of bus routes, which would have harmed concession companies. However, criticism persists, especially regarding the lack of ambition in decarbonization: no concrete electrification targets or specific funds have been included, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) is maintained as a transition fuel, leaving many players at a technological crossroads.

In conclusion, the Sustainable Mobility Law is a text under construction, lacking key pieces and whose final design still depends on a political agreement. Its importance is paramount to provide the country with a transport strategy consistent with its climate goals. However, its significance for hauliers is overshadowed by the paralysis. The law promises a more orderly and sustainable future, but the sector urgently needs that future to stop being a promise and become a clear and predictable plan. Adaptation time, a resource as valuable as money, is running out while the law waits on a parliamentary shelf.