MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Sumar has ratified its commitment to replace "thousands of short flights" in Spain with more frequent trains and cheaper prices to "save thousands of tons" of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Sumar's deputy for Girona, Júlia Boada, has stressed this Thursday on this proposal that the coalition has been defending on other occasions, underlining on the social network "cheaper tickets" and a greater frequency of trains.

To better explain his thesis, Boada has resorted to a written question recorded in Congress that he asked together with his party colleague, Félix Alonso, where they asked the Government if it plans to design a transition process from air routes to rail alternatives. to reduce pollution.

In that document, Boada and Alonso maintain that aviation mobility is responsible for between 5% and 8% of the global climate impact. If measures are not taken in this regard, they warn, the emissions produced by this industry could double by 2050, representing up to a quarter of the world's total greenhouse gases.

Next, the deputies point out that some of the most urgent measures to reduce pollution in aviation involve "ending the regulatory advantages" of aviation over more sustainable forms of transport. But Sumar deputies also suggest, as proposed by the Stay Grounded global network, establishing limits on short-haul flights, moratoriums on airport expansion projects and even a surcharge on frequent travelers.

And it seems that the reduction of short-distance flights is a measure that has already been implemented in countries such as Austria, Holland, Belgium, Sweden or France, the latter country where flights that travel distances less than 400 kilometers have been prohibited. or that they have a two-and-a-half-hour rail alternative, explain Sumar representatives.

In Spain there are several daily flights between Alicante, Barcelona, ​​Malaga, Seville, Valencia and Madrid, all of them, say Boada and Alonso, with an alternative high-speed train route that takes around two and a half hours.

For all this and taking into account that in Spain there are some 30,000 premature deaths due to pollution that represent some 3,380 million euros in social costs, the deputies emphasize that "it is urgent to decarbonize the transport sector and internalize the costs it entails" .

In this way, they have asked the Government if it has data on pollution produced by short-distance flights, if it has planned a transition process between the plane and the train for short routes and if the Executive has a strategy to decarbonize the mobility.