London Assembly calls for diesel cars to be banned from capital

By Fleet News
|
14 July 2015

London Assembly has called for the London Mayor to consider banning all diesel cars from the capital in a new report.

In places, a GLA study found that London's air quality is among the worst in Europe and the worst in the UK, while estimates suggest that over 3,000 deaths each year in London are attributable to air pollution.

London's pollution levels are also illegal. In April, the Supreme Court ordered the Government to take immediate action to tackle the dangerously high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) found in the UK.

The London Assembly Environment Committee's 'Driving away from diesel: Reducing air pollution from diesel vehicles' report found that diesel road traffic is responsible for 40% of London's emissions of nitrogen oxides (which include NO2).

The report makes recommendations to ensure NO2 compliance in London as soon as possible, in order to clean up the capital's air quality.

The recommendations include:

The Mayor should introduce the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) before 2020 and the zone should be wider and stronger.
The Government should take forward the Mayor¹s proposal for a scrappage scheme linked to replacing non-compliant vehicles with low-emission vehicles.
The Mayor should set out - following consultation with the taxi industry - how zero-emission capable taxis will be available from 2018 and how the necessary infrastructure (rapid charging network and/or hydrogen stations) will be delivered.
The Mayor should work closely with the boroughs and national government to show how the whole of London could achieve compliance with European air pollution limits by 2020.

"The committee has been pushing for NO2 compliance for some time now but following the judgment from the Supreme Court in April, the Government is now obliged to act by law," said Stephen Knight, environment committee member.

"We urge the Mayor and the Government to take our recommendations on board and we call on the Mayor to finally take ownership of the matter in order to help London's air quality meet legal limits."

As petrol engines become cleaner with time it¹s becoming clear that diesel emissions are a large part of the problem, so our report addresses this issue specifically.

Click here to download the full report

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Author: Fleet News

Comments (11)

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Comments

Charles de Mar - 14/07/2015 12:27

Hmmm, deal with 40% of the cause, rather than the 60%. If that diesel road traffic includes taxis, trucks (arrgh) and buses, then just banning diesel cars isn't going to be as effective as dealing with that unspecified 60% of the cause. Makes perfect political sense. How about the London Assembly tackle the sports cars and consular limos that get thrashed around London doing less than 20mpg?
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Gordy - 14/07/2015 13:16

I recently read about how refrigerated units on delivery trucks which use diesel engines are unregulated and possibly pump out 40 times the pollution that a EU6 diesel does. Rather than bashing the diesel cars, the newest of which are "kinder" to your lungs than old petrol engines, how about we tackle pollution at the source? How much refrigerated stuff gets delivered to London every day? Lots, I imagine. How about having deliveries overnight only, then this will keep most of the pedestrians and cyclists safe too. It would also mean more jobs as shops/cafes/stores would need to have staff in for deliveries. It means a more even spread of traffic and congestion too. Just allowing electric-only vehicles for daytime deliveries might push us in the right direction?
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sage&onion - 14/07/2015 13:37

When Euro VI diesel engine emissions standards were first discussed it was mooted that the air coming out of the engine would be cleaner than the air going in. Thus the engine becomes an air filter and particulate trap - hence the need for DPF's - and thus cleaning up the air quality. Has any study been done to measure the effect of Euro VI yet or is it still too early to see a difference? But the study should also state what proportion of this 40% of nitrogen oxides comes from taxis and the public transport system before discussing banning all diesel cars. But I do agree that there is now a growing appetite to be less reliant on diesel cars and to spread the risk across the fleet by introducing more petrol hybrids. Besides the air quality issues, DPF's clogging up is going to become a big issue for some drivers and fleets in some cities.
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tomo - 14/07/2015 15:28

Huh.... this coming from an organisation that rescinded the lower congestion charge for LPG vehicles qualifies as hypocrisy on an industrial scale. There are other words that could be used to describe their antics - but that'd result in this comment being edited / deleted... I chose LPG because of cost - but also because it's cleaner than petrol or diesel - and I got penalised by these creeps because their greed exceeds their sense of public duty....
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Tony D'melio - 14/07/2015 22:39

For years i have been tating to car manufacturers and associated operations, where drivers coming into London,should drive to a park & ride area and from there , there should be one/two seater electric cars to complete their journeys into town, this will eliminate pollution and parking problems, also when the electric cars are taken back to base, these would be automatically recharged. I have been stating this process for the past 15 years mainly, but no one has taken any notice.
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Glenn Ewen - 14/07/2015 23:06

Are these all new members of the Environment Committee then? Or the same ones who've ignored the facts for years. Diesel has always been a filthy fuel, but the fixation with CO2 instead of people's health has left us in this position. Ban all diesels: re-introduce LPG and make manufacturers produce LPG vehicles if they want to introduce any model into the country: forget CO2 as a yardstick and concentrate on particulates and NO2: forget scrappage: take the money from useless wind farm grants and put the money into converting all diesel vehicles to petrol/hybrid/LPG.
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Patriot - 14/07/2015 23:06

But the sacred cows diesel engined 'buses will still be trundling along polluting the city. 'But analysis by King's College London air researcher David Carslaw, seen by BusinessGreen, reveals just how much the capital's polluting buses are contributing to the problem, putting fresh pressure on the Mayor to introduce new green bus technologies to improve air quality. Carslaw said the concentration of NO2 during yesterday's bus strike was 58 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3), which is within reach of the legal limit of 40ug/m3. This is significantly lower than the level recorded on the previous four Thursdays, which saw average levels of 172ug/m3 - more than four times over the legal limit.' http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2394054/oxford-street-pollution-plummeted-during-bus-strike-say-scientists How will the tree hugging, polar bear lovers control the pollution from aircraft which use Heathrow and Gatwick airports and which drifts over London? 'Air quality in the City is heavily affected by pollution generated beyond our boundary so reaching air quality targets in the Square Mile requires coordinated action from the Government, Mayor of London and the City of London., www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/business/environmental-health/environmental-protection/air-quality/Documents/City of London Air Quality Strategy Jan 12.pdf I support cleaner and less polluting engines but attacking drivers of diesel engined cars,vans and large trucks without addressing the other causes of major air pollution is hypocritical in the extreme.
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Darren - 15/07/2015 08:01

Also, don't trains run on diesel? Obviously not the all electrical ones like the underground, but the other trains that run in and out of all of Londons stations day in and day out, they're all diesels, right? Have you seen the soot that pores out of the exhausts of these things? You know, jus' sayin'
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Richard Downey - 15/07/2015 10:47

Since Diesel vehicles are likely to make up far more than 40% of the road traffic in London , it follows they are cleaner than the remaining vehicles! Its a pity that common sense and basic numeracy are such a scarce commodity among politicians.
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- Marco - 26/07/2015 08:07
  
  I thought the same at first. so i wanted to read the full article and actually things are explained. that 40% represents the NOxx emission of diesel cars+trucks over the total emission, which includes industry, trains and domestic emissions.
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Phil Berrow - 15/07/2015 15:12

I think the main culprits are the buses, taxis, and lorrys that you can see pumping out thick plumes of black clouds into the atmosphere not modern diesel cars.
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G.W. Palmer - 15/07/2015 21:34

A lot of ordinary working class people have bought diesel cars on the advice of successive governments and Health and Safety organisations. The three issues are 1) they cannot afford a new car 2) many are OAP's who need to have a car and 3) we again have nanny state trying to dominate ordinary peoples lives. The fuel suppliers are perfectly capable of cleaning up diesel fuel and should or fund the replacement car costs to all those millions of people who feel they are being used. Don't just blame the Tories, previous governments are also to blame and there are others who just bury their heads in the sand e.g. Trade Unions and their fat cat leaders.
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