Catalonia will charge the CO2 tax on 3.6 million vehicles in 2020

2020 will serve as the launch year for Catalonia to begin charging the CO2 tax on more than 3.6 million vehicles. The 80 million euros expected to be collected will be allocated to a climate fund and a natural heritage fund.

The new CO2 tax will take effect in 2020 by the Catalan government. This tax will affect 3.6 million vehicles, including cars, vans and motorcycles, among others.

It is the first tax of this kind in Spain. Although, in 2017 the Generalitat de Catalunya approved it and, for various reasons, it was never applied. This past summer, however, the Climate Change Law was approved and, with it, this new tax was integrated.

This initiative also reminds us of the plans to restrict traffic in central Madrid in order to reduce pollution levels…

The Spanish Government has appealed this measure before the Constitutional Court; however, it was the latter that ruled the tax fully constitutional in a final judgment.

It appears that the tax will be incorporated through an amendment to the Climate Change Law, meaning it will be approved in the coming weeks…

The tax starts on December 31 of each year; however, it will not be collected until November of the following year. Collection is annual, meaning it will take place only once a year.

Next November 2020, total revenue is estimated to reach around 40 million euros in the first year, and as much as 80 million the following year.

The funds obtained will be allocated to fight the climate emergency and another part to preserve the natural heritage. At least it seems these taxes will prove useful and will help provide solutions to something as controversial as climate change today.

On the other hand, the executive has fine-tuned a tax that will be progressive, meaning that those who pollute the most will pay the most, and it certainly carries notable technical complexity. To give one example, the tax levies the grams of CO2 per kilometre emitted by each vehicle, a figure that was not previously recorded in new car data.

This year, vehicles that emit more than 120 grams of CO2 will begin paying the tax. Thus, 11 euros will be paid for 120 to 140 grams, and 32 euros if the 170-gram threshold is exceeded per kilometre of emissions. The vehicles most affected by this tax will be petrol cars, which after all are the ones that produce the most CO2…

As always, a new tax comes with controversy, and the motor industry employers’ associations have made known their complete rejection of it. Only time will tell the effectiveness and future acceptance of this tax…