Environmental Label for Vehicles 

Formentera.eco 2026

Formentera, January 15, 2026

Formentera recently introduced a major change to the system that regulates the entry and circulation of vehicles during the summer season. The island remains committed to controlling vehicle entry, but announced a significant shift in the criteria that will be applied starting next summer.

Since the launch of the Formentera.eco project in 2019, traffic limitation was based on a maximum quota of vehicles, which has been progressively reduced. However, the new approach makes it clear that the focus will no longer be solely on the total number of cars.

The measure presented establishes that the determining factor for allowing access to the island will be the vehicle’s environmental label—or the lack thereof. This means that energy efficiency and environmental impact will now dictate who can drive in Formentera during the peak tourist months.

The announcement sparked a debate among local administrations, political parties, and community associations, all of which will need to take a position before the regulation comes into effect with the start of the next summer season.

Two proposals on the table

The Minister of Environment and Mobility, Verónica Castelló, explained the two scenarios discussed at the Consell d’Entitats. Both models will be implemented progressively until 2029, but they differ in how quickly access will be restricted for the most polluting vehicles.

In the first option, cars without an environmental label may continue to enter under limited conditions until 2026 and will be completely banned from 2027 onwards. In the second option, this ban would already take effect in summer 2026, immediately changing the profile of vehicles allowed on the island.

The proposed plans are supported by three technical studies: one on the carrying capacity of Formentera’s road network, another on the environmental labels of vehicles that circulated last season, and a third based on traffic counts taken in August.

According to Castelló, the goal is to halt the annual reduction in vehicle quotas and maintain the same limits already planned for 2025.

New quotas for visitors and workers

One of the main changes will be the reorganization of daily quotas. Until now, tourists and non-resident workers shared the same quota for cars and motorbikes. Starting next summer, a specific category will be created for workers, with a maximum of 800 vehicles.
For visitors, 1,000 cars will be allowed per day, and the limit of 122 motorbikes will remain unchanged. It is within these 1,000 visitor vehicles that the subdivision by environmental label will be applied.

The weight of the environmental label

Vehicles will be classified according to the criteria of the Spanish Directorate-General for Traffic. In the less restrictive scenario, cars with the 0 and ECO labels will initially be allocated 200 spots, a figure that will gradually increase to 350 by 2029.

Vehicles with a C label will maintain 600 annual spots without change. In contrast, the B category will see a gradual reduction in its quota, and cars without any label will go from very limited access in 2026 to being fully banned starting in 2027. The second proposal would move this timeline forward, eliminating the most polluting categories sooner.

Criticism and political doubts

Although the Consell Insular stressed that the total number of authorized vehicles would not increase, opposition parties questioned the new quota distribution. Gent per Formentera and the PSOE warned that the change could, for the first time since 2019, lead to an increase in the daily vehicle cap.
Additionally, both groups criticized the four-year validity of the proposal and called for a shorter period that would allow for a review of the measure’s real impact after the next elections.