Spain will not ban the sale of diesel or petrol cars by 2040, but still aims to be carbon neutral by 2050

THE Government has announced that it will not ban the sale of diesel or petrol cars by 2040.

The Climate Change Law is being debated today in Congress, but it doesn’t include prohibiting the sale of polluting cars.

Instead, the law will aim to promote measures to make them disappear from the market because people won’t want to buy them.

Although the Government was keen on banning diesel and petrol cars outright within the next two decades, that decision has now been backtracked.

The goal of getting Spain to be carbon neutral by 2050 is one of Pedro Sanchez’s biggest aims since coming to power.

Although the outright sale of these polluting cars is not banned, the measures that will be put in place will make these cars unprofitable and therefore their demand will drop to practically zero.

In addition, the Executive will also give financial aid to boost the sales of electric vehicles until 2025 at least.

Once electric cars become cheaper than diesel or petrol – sometime between 2023 and 2027 – according to Government estimations, then they will no longer be subsidised.

Likewise, city councils have until 2023 to implement low-emission zones in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.