In 2024, Madrid complied with the European air quality directive for the third consecutive year and closed the year with the lowest nitrogen dioxide (NO2) records in its history, as announced by the City Council this Thursday in a statement.
“We start this new year 2025 with the best news: Madrid breathes better than ever. The 2024 data confirms that, for the third consecutive year, we have achieved the best air quality records in our history. We are therefore consolidating a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable city model for everyone,” highlighted the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.
In this way, the city complies for the third year with the European air quality directive in 2024, when none of the 24 stations in the network exceeded 31 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3). From 2010 to 2021, the capital violated the nitrogen dioxide thresholds established in the annual limit value of the directive, whose maximum is set at 40 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3)
The introduction of Madrid Central during the mandate of Manuela Carmena (now Madrid 360) began to moderate data in which meteorological conditions such as accumulated rainfall over the months also play a key role.
In the last decade, the worst year for air quality was 2017, when this limit was exceeded in 15 of the 24 stations in the city. In 2018, some of them were exceeded, this being precisely the last reference year included in the European Court of Justice’s condemnation of Spain for the repeated non-compliance of Madrid, Barcelona and Bajos del Llobregat since 2010.
On the other hand, in 2024 none of the 24 stations in the network have exceeded 31 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3), while in 2019, there were 19 that exceeded this value. Likewise, Plaza Elíptica, which was the pollution black spot in Madrid until 2022, has closed the year at 31 ug/m3, which represents a reduction in nitrogen dioxide of 41.5% since 2019 and 13.9 % compared to 2023.
Likewise, the Escuelas Aguirre station has been a problematic point for air quality. In five years, the level of NO2 at this point has decreased by almost half (45.1%). Other NO2 reductions since 2019 are reflected in Urbanización Embajada (-52.6%), Méndez Álvaro (-41.2%), Arturo Soria (-41.2%), Plaza de España (-40%), Retiro ( -40%) and Castellana (-35.5%), according to data from the City Council.
The socialist spokesperson for Mobility in the capital’s City Council, Ignacio Benito, has advised Almeida’s team to be “much more cautious” when boasting about the air quality data that Madrid residents breathe “when every year they die in Madrid 2,000 people because of pollution.” “From the PSOE we will never be able to applaud these data when 2,000 people die in Madrid every year due to pollution. In fact, we have been trying for six years to address this devastating figure for what it is, a public health problem in the face of which there is no room for conformity,” the councilor said in a statement.
Easing of restrictions despite the future tightening of the European requirement
The new European directive sets the limit for five years from now at 20 ug/m3. In this sense, Almeida has advanced that the capital is moving forward, “leading the commitment to sustainability”, and in nine stations the capital is already situated “at the demanding levels of air quality that Europe will establish by 2030”, which reduces to half the maximum established levels.
In reality there are four, since five of them reach just that level. These are Arturo Soria (20 ug/m3), Méndez Álvaro (20 ug/m3), Juan Carlos I (20 ug/m3), Sanchinarro (20 ug/m3), Tres Olivos (20 ug/m3). Below are Urbanización Embajada (18 ug/m3), Retiro (15 ug/m3), Casa de Campo (15 ug/m3) and El Pardo (11 ug/m3). In 2019, only one station decreased this value (El Pardo, by 16 ug/m3).
The mayor of Más Madrid Esther Gómez points out that “Almeida lives off the income from Manuela Carmena’s air quality policies while the year begins with a moratorium on vehicles without a label” and warns that, despite the good evolution of the data, “these fail to comply with the parameters of the new European directive approved last May that will come into force in 2030, which reduces the limits by half and only 4 of the 25 stations would comply. measurement of the city (among them, the three located in Casa de Campo, El Pardo and El Retiro)”.
Más Madrid focuses on the data that the Almeida Government prefers to ignore regarding the concentration of tropospheric ozone, which are the worst historical data for the city and contrast with the downward trend in the rest of the country. “We ask that effective measures be taken now to adapt the city to the challenge of air quality, which is fundamental in environmental, climatic and public health terms,” adds Gómez.
Thus, although there are still 20 stations that would not reach this new European objective, the Almeida Government has relaxed the restrictions on the traffic of polluting cars in 2025. Finally, vehicles without a label (type A) registered in the city will be able to circulate through it thanks to a moratorium of twelve moses with warnings but without fines, and its drivers will be able to renew their Regulated Parking Service (SER) subscription. The only exception will be the Special Protection Low Emission Zones (ZBEDEP), in the Center and around Plaza Elíptica.
The councilor has once again highlighted the Madrid 360 Environmental Sustainability Strategy, a “successful” model that allows for a better “quality of life” thanks to the measures it contemplates and that has demonstrated that economic growth and environmental sustainability “ They are compatible.” “Just a few years ago many believed that it was impossible to reverse the environmental situation in Madrid, which systematically failed to comply with the air quality parameters set by Europe. But once again, this city has shown that there is no challenge that can resist us,” Almeida highlighted despite his latest lurches in strategy.
Some hesitation that comes after a ruling by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) annulled its three Low Emission Zones and sent the capital back to square one in terms of environmental legislation. In September, the TSJM overturned the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance that Almeida himself had to approve again in 2021 due to another court ruling that overthrew Madrid Central, then due to a lawsuit from the PP itself. A good part of the electoral campaign of the now first mayor revolved around its suppression and, once in the mayor’s office and due to his agreement with Ciudadanos, he had to deal with maintaining the restrictions in some way to continue reducing pollution in Madrid.
Now the City Council is finalizing a new Mobility Ordinance, while appealing the court ruling to the Supreme Court to maintain the validity of the previous one, in turn diminished by some latest modifications with which Alemida tries to maintain a fragile balance: satisfy a large part of its electorate while being able to boast about the improvement in pollution data.
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