Cities Pledge to Ban Diesel Vehicles
Engineering360 News Desk | December 05, 2016During the sixth biennial C40 Mayors Summit held in Mexico City, mayors from Paris, Mexico City, Madrid, and Athens said that they will ban diesel vehicles from their cities' roads by 2025 in a commitment to reduce urban air pollution. C40 is a network of the world’s megacities established to address climate change.
C40 is a network of the world’s megacities established to address climate change.The initiative will include policies to incentivize alternative vehicles and promote walking and cycling infrastructure, and a global petition demanding that vehicle manufacturers lead an air quality transformation. The latter urges companies to stop producing diesel vehicles by 2025 and to support a transition to electric, hydrogen, and hybrid vehicles.
Pursuing policies that improve air quality – decarbonizing transportation systems and promoting alternative transportation options – also help cities deliver on the ambition of the Paris Agreement, the mayors say. C40 announced a two-year partnership with Johnson & Johnson to promote the health and well-being of urban inhabitants and the environment through research and education.
The organization is also partnering with the World Health Organization and UN Environment’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition, in support of the BreathLife campaign to halve the 6.5 million deaths from air pollution by 2030.
The campaign will support city governments to reduce harmful emissions from the transport, waste, and energy sectors, as well as mobilizing citizen action to reduce air pollution while also slowing climate change.
Thats almost funny, in Germany, recent tests have shown that modern Diesel cars with an exhaust filter are many thousands of times cleaner, particle wise, than most petrol engined cars....
AutoBild about 4 weeks ago.
Whatever happened to the emissions tax/surcharge based on annual tail pipe testing of everything entering the city limits? The pure market based solution. I recall Franco had something like this (a random spot check fine system run by a special division of the local cops) in Madrid when he was honcho in Spain.
Older dirty diesels are an issue, the port city of Southampton where I work has major issues with pollution at times, but it's the road users that will suffer from these bans and/or punitive taxes, not the diesel engined railways, ships or aircraft that all put out significant amounts of pollutants into the city. Add in the effects of the public transport network of buses that are favoured at traffic lights, and behind which nothing else can move, by design all bus stops are built out to obstruct free flow of traffic, leading to even greater emissions than necessary and one has to wonder if the city has any idea about actually improving smooth flow to reduce emissions. The recent advice on health grounds by the medical profession for removing traffic 'calming' humps etc that cause flow surging and increased pollution is seen as unacceptable by some campaigners too. Perhaps the ban will help, but alone it's not enough, not until the other polluters are dealt with too.