This plan, developed jointly with Renfe, responds to the framework agreement for the Fight against Climate Change signed by Adif and Adif AV with Renfe in March 2018, which outlined the general lines of action and established the need to articulate them through a master plan.

The framework agreement includes an option for other rail companies to join, allowing better collaboration within the sector.

As rail generates less CO2 than other modes of transport, the plan focuses on enhancing its role in the transport sector and enacting a modal shift away from road and air freight, which Adif says is estimated to reduce accumulated emissions by more than 8 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030,

Adif says the different measures included in the initiative will result in an estimated economic saving of €251m between 2019 and 2030.

The plan contains a series of energy efficiency and decarbonisation measures applied to the rail industry, focused on achieving an accumulated reduction in energy consumption of around 5300GWh by 2030. These measures will reduce cumulative CO2 emissions by 1.5 million tonnes in the same period.

The plan also includes the purchase of green electric power, which will allow the reduction of accumulated emissions in more than 7 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.

In November last year, the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Managers (CER), European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM), and the European Rail Industry Association (Unife) called on governments and decision makers to back rail to deliver decarbonisation of the transport sector.

Europe’s leading railway associations have also issued their support for the Graz Declaration, which calls for the development of policies that will deliver the objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and offer a “Green Deal for Europe.”