The Court of Auditors of Andalusia has audited the LEZs of 30 Andalusian municipalities. Seville was the only one to meet legal deadlines, but the auditor points out serious technical and transparency shortcomings.
The Court of Auditors of Andalusia has focused on the Low Emission Zones (LEZs) of municipalities in Andalusia with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The audit report, made public this Thursday, analyses the regulatory compliance of these areas, designed to reduce pollution and promote sustainable mobility. It leaves the capital of Seville in an ambivalent position: a pioneer in deadlines, but with significant technical gaps.
According to the document, Seville was the only city among the 30 audited that managed to have its LEZ regulations come into effect before January 1, 2023, as required by the Climate Change Law. In fact, its LEZ officially began operating on January 1, 2023. Furthermore, as of March 31, 2025, it was the only one in all of Andalusia that was effectively imposing fines, with a total of 1,509 penalties since its establishment.
However, this revenue-raising zeal contrasts with a concerning lack of environmental knowledge. The Seville City Council stated it did not know whether pollutant threshold values were exceeded before the implementation of the Zone. As of March 2025, it had not issued any formal evaluation report on compliance with air quality improvement objectives.
The report indicates that Seville systematically omitted key data in its air quality indicators: the evolution of the annual average concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particles (PM2.5), and suspended particles (PM10), as well as data on exceeding legal limits and greenhouse gases. In the evaluation tables, the city appears with the notation "n/a" (no data) regarding the contribution of its measures to the reduction of GHG emissions.
The main criticism from the Court of Auditors is that Seville approved its LEZ with regulations prior to Royal Decree 1052/2022 and did not adapt it within the 18-month period required by law. As a result, during the audited period, the city lacked a technical project adapted to the minimum legal content. It also had not published its technical projects on the transparency portal, violating the Public Transparency Law of Andalusia. Additionally, it did not conduct prior noise maps, did not characterise its vehicle fleet, nor did it assess the impact of the LEZ on adjacent areas or vulnerable groups.
The Seville City Council has responded to these criticisms by claiming it has already taken measures to rectify the deficiencies. On March 20, 2026, it finally approved a new technical project adapted to current legality, published in the Official Bulletin of the Province on March 25, 2026. This project adapts Seville's LEZ to the requirements of Royal Decree 1052/2022 and the Climate Change and Energy Transition Law.
The main objective of the new project is to provide legal certainty to the LEZ. Due to the previous lack of an adapted technical project, Seville risked having municipal fines annulled judicially, as has occurred in other cities in Spain. As of March 31, 2025, Seville was the only Andalusian city effectively imposing fines, with 1,509 penalties since July 2024.
The Court of Auditors' report concludes by offering institutional recommendations to ensure that LEZs effectively improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Among them, it urges municipalities to establish quantifiable objectives, improve signage, and ensure transparency in management.
For Seville drivers, the regularisation of the LEZ means that the fine system remains, but now with a more robust technical and legal backing. The City Council has assured that the new project includes economic reports and impact studies, although complete details have not yet been published. Updated information is expected to be disseminated through official channels in the coming weeks.
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