UK leaders call for moving ICE ban forward to 2030
In a call to action, the Mayor of London and cross-party leaders will urge the British government to end pure diesel and petrol sales in 2030, ten years earlier than planned. Together they are representing around 20m people from across England and Wales.
The call will be specified on an air quality summit this Wednesday, instigated by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, UK100 and IPPR. Conservative Environment Secretary MP Michael Gove joins other parties to urge Westminster to bring forward current plans to phase out the vehicles from 2040 to 2030.
Together, the city leaders will reiterate their commitment to working together to reduce emissions and tackle pollution. In addition to taking action in their own areas, this will include an enhanced Clean Air Fund from government and manufacturers that will support Clean Air Zones, a targeted national vehicle renewal scheme to replace older polluting vehicles, and a Clean Air Act that sets strict air quality limits.
The current conservative government had to lose in court twice to finally draft the Clean Air Plan. In its latest form, it still does not include a scrappage scheme nor immediate clean air zones.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan had been repeatedly calling for both, thus seeking federal funding for plans to clean up the air in the British capital. The latest decision in this regard will see the expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to the North and South Circular boundary in 2021. The new ULEZ will cover an area 18 times larger than the ULEZ in Central London. The latter is being delivered in April 2019, 17 months earlier than planned (we reported).
Recently measures to ban sales of fossil-fuel powered vehicles have been largely progressed on the municipal level.
Rome for example plans to ban private diesel vehicles from the historical centre as of 2024 (we reported).
In France, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is spearheading a movement for cleaner air and has discussed various measures, including free public transport similar to Brussels’ air pollution emergency plan. Even an ICE ban has been decided already as Paris is part of the C40 initiative of cities fighting climate change and pledged to say “adieu” to combustion-powered cars by 2030. Diesel engine cars are likely to be banned even earlier, before the start of the Olympic Games in 2024 (we reported).
0 Comments