Sustainability laws and directives affecting companies in 2026

As of August 2026, a company operating in Spain lives with four blocks of environmental regulation: climate and reporting (Royal Decree 214/2025, CSRD after Omnibus, CBAM, ETS2), waste and packaging (Law 7/2022, PPWR), product and supply chain (ESPR, EUDR, CSDDD) and mobility (Law 9/2025). On top of that sit environmental taxes and the rules on green claims.

This guide gathers every one of those rules in a single table, with its scope, who it applies to, from when and what it requires, and then develops each block with the dates that belong in your calendar.

Master table of rules in force in 2026

What did the Omnibus package change, and who left the perimeter?

Directive (EU) 2026/470, known as Omnibus I, was published in the Official Journal on 26 February 2026 and entered into force on 18 March 2026. Its effect is to narrow scope, not content.

• The CSRD now applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than 450 million euros in net turnover. The first reporting year is 2027, with reports in 2028.
• Assurance stays at limited level, with no move to reasonable assurance.
• The CSDDD rises to 5,000 employees and 1.5 billion euros in worldwide turnover, with transposition on 26 July 2028 and application on 26 July 2029.
• The CSDDD no longer requires companies to adopt and implement a climate transition plan: that duty was dropped in the final negotiation.
• Companies with fewer than 1,000 employees are shielded from disproportionate data requests by the companies that do have to report.
• The general transposition deadline is 19 March 2027.

The detail is in our analysis of the ESG Omnibus in 2026. If you need to separate what the directive asks for from what the standards ask for, the guide to CSRD and ESRS differences sorts it out.

Which climate and reporting duties apply in Spain?

Even with the CSRD narrowed, Spain keeps a climate obligation that reaches many more companies: Royal Decree 214/2025. It requires companies that report non-financial information to calculate their Scope 1 and 2 footprint and publish a reduction plan with a quantified target and a minimum five-year horizon, within six months of the end of the financial year. The reference year is 2025.

Do not confuse that duty with the registry. Entering the MITECO carbon footprint registry remains voluntary for private companies, and is only mandatory for the General State Administration and its administrative public sector, from 2026.

Spain's CSRD transposition is not finished: the Sustainability Reporting Bill is still going through parliament and, in the meantime, the non-financial information statement regime under Law 11/2018 still applies. There are additional regional duties, covered in our review of environmental legislation at regional level.

On imports, CBAM entered its definitive phase on 1 January 2026. Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 introduced a de minimis threshold of 50 tonnes of net mass per importer per year, which leaves most small importers of cement, iron and steel, aluminium and fertilisers outside the regime. Electricity and hydrogen do not benefit from that threshold: they are always covered.

Which waste and packaging rules must be met?

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste is this summer's headline: it applies from 12 August 2026 and replaces the old directive with directly applicable requirements on recyclability, empty space minimisation, recycled content and harmonised labelling. We break it down in our guide to what your business needs for the PPWR.

In Spain it overlaps with Law 7/2022 on waste and contaminated soil and with Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging, which extended producer responsibility to commercial and industrial packaging. The usual duties are registering as a producer, joining a collective scheme or setting up an individual one, declaring the quantities placed on the market and documenting waste traceability.

What do the product and supply chain rules require?

• ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781. The ecodesign framework that introduces the digital product passport by product group. The first to arrive is the battery passport, required from 18 February 2027.
• EUDR, Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 pushed application to 30 December 2026 for large and medium companies and to 30 June 2027 for micro-enterprises and natural persons for the remaining products, and simplified downstream declarations. We analyse it in the EUDR postponement.
• CSDDD. With the new threshold it directly affects very few companies, but its requirements cascade to suppliers through contracts.

Which environmental rules affect mobility and transport?

Law 9/2025 on sustainable mobility requires companies with more than 200 employees, or more than 100 per shift, to have a workplace sustainable mobility plan negotiated with employee representatives. Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 brought the deadline forward by a year: the plan must be approved before 5 December 2026. Non-compliance is classified as a minor infringement, with fines from 101 to 2,000 euros, and can trigger the return of public aid. It is developed in our article on the workplace mobility plan after Royal Decree-Law 7/2026.

Add to that low emission zones in municipalities above 50,000 inhabitants, the Euro 7 standard for new vehicles and, for transport emissions accounting, ISO 14083:2023, which underpins the GLEC Framework and the CountEmissions EU initiative.

Which environmental taxes apply in Spain?

• Excise duty on non-reusable plastic packaging, at 0.45 euros per kilogram of non-recycled plastic.
• Tax on landfilling, incineration and co-incineration of waste, both created by Law 7/2022.
• Tax on fluorinated greenhouse gases, calculated on global warming potential.
• Excise duty on electricity and the regional taxes on emissions and installations.
• The cost of the emissions trading scheme for covered installations, which ETS2 will extend to buildings and road transport fuels.

The full map, including available deductions, is in our guide to green taxation in Spain.

What about environmental claims?

The Green Claims Directive is not law: the European Commission withdrew the proposal in June 2025 and it is no longer going through the legislative process. What does apply is Directive (EU) 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition, which had to be transposed by 27 March 2026 and applies from 27 September 2026. It bans generic environmental claims without recognised substantiation, climate neutrality claims based only on offsetting, and sustainability labels that do not come from a certification scheme.

Which voluntary standards still matter?

• ISO 14001:2026, published on 15 April 2026, with more weight on climate, biodiversity and the value chain. We review the changes in our article on the new ISO 14001:2026.
• ISO 14064-1:2018 and the GHG Protocol for the emissions inventory.
• ISO 14083:2023 for transport and logistics emissions.
• EMAS as the environmental management system recognised by the EU.
• SBTi for science-aligned targets and B Corp, with its new standards in place since 2025.

Frequently asked questions about environmental regulation for companies

Which environmental regulations affect a company in Spain today?

At a minimum, Law 7/2021 on climate change, Law 7/2022 on waste with its associated taxes, the PPWR from 12 August 2026 if you place packaging on the market, and Law 9/2025 on sustainable mobility above 200 employees. If you also report non-financial information, Royal Decree 214/2025 applies. If you import carbon-intensive goods, CBAM does.

Is the CSRD still mandatory for my company?

Only if it exceeds 1,000 employees and 450 million euros in net turnover. Directive (EU) 2026/470 removed the vast majority of the companies that sat in waves 2 and 3. For those still in scope, the first reporting year is 2027.

Is calculating the carbon footprint mandatory in Spain?

Yes for companies that report non-financial information, under Royal Decree 214/2025, which also requires publishing a five-year reduction plan. Registering it with MITECO is a separate matter and remains voluntary for the private sector.

What happened to the Green Claims Directive?

The Commission withdrew the proposal in June 2025, so it never became law and it is no longer in the legislative pipeline. Greenwashing control now rests with Directive (EU) 2024/825, applicable from 27 September 2026.

Which dates should be marked between 2026 and 2027?

12 August 2026 for the PPWR, 27 September 2026 for environmental claims, 5 December 2026 for workplace mobility plans, 30 December 2026 for the EUDR, 18 February 2027 for the battery passport and 19 March 2027 for Omnibus transposition.

If you would rather bring emissions calculation, documentation and reporting into a single flow instead of chasing each rule separately, see how Manglai approaches CSRD compliance and the other frameworks.