The document produced for Mallorca Strategy 2030, which addresses the challenges of climate change, overpopulation and overexploitation of resources, highlights the extent to which road transport contributes to emissions. This contribution is greater than that for travel by plane or ship and equates to 56% of all emissions - it produces more than two million tonnes of CO2 per annum.
The thirty or so specialists from a variety of backgrounds who drew up this document stress the need to reduce dependence on private transport. In advocating far greater emphasis on public transport, it is argued that - for buses - there should be maximum waits of fifteen minutes in municipalities with more than 20,000 residents and thirty minutes for those with under 20,000.
There should be improvements to connections that do not have to pass through Palma, while there needs to be a general adoption of HOV lanes (high-occupancy vehicles) but exclusively for public transport.
A reorientation of road infrastructure from private to public transport involves not only reserving HOV lanes for public transport on existing roads, but also carrying out an exhaustive inventory of roads. Based on real data, a network should be drawn up that connects the different population centres and municipalities, keeping parts of these routes for bicycles and other types of non-polluting personal mobility.
Priority should be given to reducing "the fleet of individual tourist transport" (hire cars, in other words), to the pedestrianisation of the centres of municipalities and to the creation of out-of-centre car parks with good connections to centres.
As to rail, proposals are to complete the planned Llevant line (Manacor-Arta with Cala Ratjada and Cala Millor branches) and to create two new lines - Andratx-Calvia-Palma and Palma-Llucmajor-Campos-Santanyi-Felanitx-Manacor.
With regard to air transport, the document states that it is "essential" to reduce the existing tourist offer in Mallorca and to raise the quality of this offer by reducing the number of accommodation places and increasing the inspection and sanction of illegal accommodation. To facilitate this reduction, there should either be a transfer of powers for the airport from the Spanish government to the regional government or adoption by the Aena airports authority of measures to reduce the number of flights and visitors.
Transport by sea is a major contributor to the emission of greenhouse gases and also contributes "seriously" to air pollution at a local level. It is therefore proposed that by 2030, all vessels arriving at ports in Mallorca should have zero emissions (use of batteries, hydrogen, solar, wind, etc.), while the number of private boats should be cut in order to reduce the pressure on and degradation of posidonia sea grass meadows, which are the "main carbon nurseries of the Balearic Islands and therefore essential for the fight against climate change".