Local governments and environmental protection in Spain. Protection of air quality as one of the main challenges faced by cities

• Autor(a) principal: Casado Casado, Lucía
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Revista de Direito Econômico e Socioambiental
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.pucpr.br/direitoeconomico/article/view/30797
• topic: local governments; environment; municipalities; air quality; low emission zones.; gobiernos locales; medio ambiente; municipios; calidad del aire; zonas de bajas emisiones.

This paper aims to analyse the central role of local governments in environmental protection. This is a relevant topic, in a context of growing importance of cities, in which sustainability appears as an unpostponable challenge. To this effect, it is structured in three distinct parts. The first aims to highlight the growing role of cities in environmental protection, despite the global nature of many environmental problems and the existence of numerous transnational challenges. The second focuses on the analysis of local competences in environmental matters, with special reference to municipalities; it warns of some of the existing problems; and points out some of the future challenges for effective environmental protection at the local level. Finally, the third section focuses on one of the main challenges facing cities: the protection of air quality, and particularly refers to the challenge currently posed for many municipalities by the implementation of Low Emission Zones (hereinafter, LEZs) as an instrument to combat air pollution and climate change in the urban sphere.