Regulations
Royal Decree 214/2025 what it requires on carbon footprint.
Spain's Royal Decree 214/2025 requires companies subject to non-financial reporting, and part of the public sector, to calculate their carbon footprint every year, draw up a reduction plan covering at least five years and publish it. Registering in the official register is voluntary for companies.
- What it regulates
- Annual organisation footprint calculation, a five-year reduction plan, publication and a voluntary register
- Who it affects
- Companies required to report non-financial information and part of the central public sector
- Minimum scope
- Scopes 1 and 2; Scope 3 is voluntary for companies
- Status on 3 October 2026
- In force
Royal Decree 214/2025 of 18 March expands the register of carbon footprint, offsetting and carbon dioxide removal projects, created by Royal Decree 163/2014, and sets out who must calculate their footprint and publish a reduction plan. This is general information with the official source at the end, not legal advice.
Who is obliged?
Companies required to include non-financial information under article 49.5 of the Commercial Code and article 262.5 of the Capital Companies Act, or the rules that replace them. Also the ministerial departments of the central government and other central public sector entities. If you belong to a group, the criteria of those provisions on publication apply.
What do they have to do?
- Calculate the organisation’s carbon footprint every year, using the emission factors published by the Spanish Climate Change Office, as long as this is compatible with the non-financial reporting rules.
- Draw up a reduction plan with a quantified target against a base year, the measures to achieve it and a horizon of at least five years. From 1 January 2026, that horizon applies to the 2025 footprint.
- Publish the footprint and the plan free of charge and accessibly on their website. Companies comply by including that information in their sustainability report.
Which scopes does it include?
The organisation footprint includes at least Scope 1 and Scope 2. Scope 3 is voluntary for companies. For the central government, Scope 3 is included in the calculation from 2028 onwards.
What does it have to do with your suppliers and customers?
The Royal Decree does not impose Scope 3 on companies, but many ask their value chain for product data to complete their inventory or for other rules, such as the CSRD. If you are a supplier and are asked for the footprint of your product, the Scope 3 for purchases page explains how it is calculated.
Frequently asked questions
What companies usually ask before getting started.
Does it require calculating Scope 3?
Not for companies. The organisation footprint includes at least Scopes 1 and 2, and Scope 3 is voluntary. In the central public sector, Scope 3 is included in the calculation from 2028 onwards.
Which emission factors must be used?
Those published by the Spanish Climate Change Office, as long as this is compatible with the non-financial reporting rules.
Do I have to register?
Companies are not required to register, but they must make their footprint and reduction plan public. They may register voluntarily.
Keep reading
Regulations
What Spain's Royal Decree 214/2025, the CSRD and ESRS and the environmental claims rules require, who they affect and what footprint data you may be asked for.
CSRD and ESRS E1
What changed with Directive 2026/470 and the revised ESRS, who the CSRD obliges and how it affects Scope 3 and suppliers. Sources: EUR-Lex and the Commission.
Scope 3 for purchases
Measure purchased-goods Scope 3 (Categories 1 and 2) with physical factors. Xain Insight needs only the ERP spreadsheet: less than 10 minutes.
Scope 1, 2 and 3
They are the three GHG Protocol categories used to classify an organisation’s emissions: Scope 1 is direct emissions, Scope 2 is purchased energy, and Scope 3 is every other emission in the value chain.
Tell us what you want to measure
One product, a catalogue or your purchases. We reply with the next steps.
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