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news
London pollution haze (CC licensed image by Alun Salt:Flickr)Four major cities pledge to ban diesel engines over safety fears
Four major world cities have pledged to ban all diesel vehicles from their streets by 2020 as world leaders attempt to tackle the crisis of dangerous air pollution.
Paris, Madrid, Athens and Mexico City will implement the bans following a climate meeting in Mexico where mayors put their weight behind electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles, and walking and cycling.
Diesel engines are thought to be behind the toxic air pollution that causes at least half a million premature deaths in Europe each year, with pariculate matter and nitrogen oxides the main health concerns.
At a climate meeting in Mexico, the cities’ mayors also pledged to incentivise electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles, and walking and cycling.
The move comes amid increasing concerns about the impact of diesel engines on the health of people living in cities.
Last week a report found that air pollution causes nearly half a million premature deaths each year in Europe alone.
Anne Hidalgo, Paris’s mayor, told the BBC: “Our city is implementing a bold plan - we will progressively ban the most polluting vehicles from the roads, helping Paris citizens with concrete accompanying measures.”
“Our ambition is clear and we have started to roll it out: we want to ban diesel from our city, following the model of Tokyo, which has already done the same.”
Mexico City’s mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said: “By expanding alternative transportation options like our Bus Rapid Transport and subway systems, while also investing in cycling infrastructure, we are working to ease congestion in our roadways and our lungs.”
German politicians have already voted a ban on combustion-engine cars by 2030, a law which must now be adopted by the EU.
Back in May, we reported how the Mayor of London announced his plans to introduce a new T-Charge” to reduce toxic pollution in central London from next year.
Sadiq Khan will try to pile the charges for the most polluting vehicles on top of the congestion charge, and further extend the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), planned to come into force from 2020.
It could run city-wide, from the North Circular to the South Circular, in ambitious plans - meaning that cars and trucks that fail to comply will have to pay £12.50 per day to travel in the zone.
Mr Khan says he is acting with urgency, as pollution is thought to be causing over 9,000 deaths a year in the capital.
Mr Khan told the Evening Standard: "We need big, bold and sometimes difficult policies if London is to match the scale of the challenge.
“I have been elected with a clear mandate to clean up London’s air – our biggest environmental challenge.
“In the past, London has only responded after an emergency, like with the Clean Air Act, which followed the Great London Smogs of the 1950s.
“But I want to act before an emergency, which is why we need big, bold and sometimes difficult policies if London is to match the scale of the challenge.”
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Here in Southampton we just get long lines of cars queuing for cruise ships. ...
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I like how drivers make the case for making monitoring covert, not overt.
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She seemed a bit upset about a minor misjudgement that could have killed someone and is going to cause months of stress and inconvenience.
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And which looks very like the bag produced by indy bag manufacturer Wizard Works…...
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The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.
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Hey, you 4 execs helped run a company into the ground and have no jobs anymore... Come work for us because you have great experience in the...
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£11.5k for a bike weighing over 8kg that's 2 fingers to customers let alone UCI
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17 comments
There seems to be some doubt about the new "Euro 6" diesels being as clean as they should be when actually out on the road:
http://www.airqualitynews.com/2015/05/27/latest-euro-6-diesel-car-emissi...
Will be interesting how this one goes when the new tests come in next year and the lab-coats have to get their driving gloves on.
I think you have all failed to keep up with evolving technology.
London is going to introduce an Ultra Low Emissions Zone, which whilst not a ban will charge polluting cars on top of the existing congestion charge.
The latest Euro 6 diesels will be exempt as they have emissions comparable to petrol engines.
I am in favor of reducing emissions but lets do just that and target an emissions level rather than one particular fuel type - older petrol cars are more polluting than latest technology diesels.
OK, fair point...but that presumes the official 'emission figures' of those vehicles are accurate. At this point there seems to be good reason to have doubts about that. The past record inspires no confidence whatsoever.
I'd like to see more on-the-spot emissions testing. Especially of those vehicles you occasionally encounter with clouds of foul-smelling black smoke coming out the exhaust. Why are those guys not stopped by the police?
I lease my car and my next one will be an hybrid one though despite dropping down a car size it will cost me nearly as much that is what I am prepared to do.
As said before by some all it takes for evil to win is for the good to do nothing ... the evil in this case are the likes of those who support Trump, UKIP etc who belive it is fine increasing car travel.
Gosh, the sacrifices we make...
Faux Keyensian economics at work. Force people to change their vehicles to give a massive stimulus to the motor industry, from the sales room right to the aluminium mines, all done on borrowed money to funnel more fraudulent interest to the banks at every stage. The waste of resources and industrial pollution caused will far outweigh any benefit from scrapping diesel vehicles. It's a broken window policy but instead of breaking windows they are just banning them.
Town and city should be battery only, longer journeys, petrol and ultimately hydrogen. Isn't it something like 95% of all journeys are within 10 miles. I know I can use our petrol hybrid to go to the local town and back on battery only. I've only filled the tank of petrol 3 times in a year.
The best short term answer is LPG. It burns cleaner even than petrol and gives lower total CO2 emmissions (hence the reduced tax on it). It can be fitted to nearly all existing petrol motors, which is probably why the motor industry doesn't like it as a solution. All their options for solving pollution issues involve buying a new car.
Diesel was just the wrong option.
Have I missed something about diesel engines vs petrol? I thought that usually diesel engines were less pollutant than petrol but the above mentions just re diesel being banned in these cities
Diesel engines have lower CO2 emissions than petrol. The trouble is that diesel engines also emit far more particulates. So you have a choice of global warning or respiratory disease.
But the difference in CO2 emissions isn't that big. The difference in toxic pollution is much bigger making the choice straightforward for me, even though petrols are more expensive to run due to decades of idiotic government policy.
I am so glad I asked the question, I was completely unaware of this. I currently drive a diesel and was half considering getting the same next year instead of a hybrid but I'll definitely go for a hybrid now.
Thanks for the info
Yup. And apparently petrol engines have improved considerably since the stupid decsision to incentivise diesel, making the situation even more absurd.
And it seems as if every other month they discover a new awful effect of diesel particulates on health.
The way to reduce CO2 emissions is to get people to drive less, not to use different fuel.
Besides, I'm no climate-change denier, but I am deeply pessimistic about it. I don't really believe much is going to be done about it, globally. In the meantime, before London is reduced to a few superskyscrapers poking out from the flood-waters (and millionaires floating drowned in their mega-basements) I'd at least like to be able to breath without choking.
Yes, you've missed something! Diesels pump out particulates and nitrous oxides that are killing tens of tgousands of people a year in the UK. The only thing they have going for them environmentally is that they give out *slightly* less CO2. Both diesels and petrol engines are damaging to the climate, but diesels are far, far worse for air pollution.
This is why I flatly refuse to buy a diesel. I also try to minimise car use but with kids in the UK it's hard to avoid completely due to lack of family friendly cycling infrastructure.
The issues with diesel aren't even a new revelation - see this article from 2014:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/06/diesel-scandal-cheap...
Pay-to-Kill
Chance for Khan to demonstrate he's not as useless as I'm beginning to suspect he is.
I'll believe it when I see it.