Government announces plans to tackle poor air quality
Wed 16 December 2015
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The Government has announced plans to improve air quality in cities which include the introduction of Clean Air Zones in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton by 2020. The Government says that these Zones will not affect private car owners, but will see the most polluting vehicles, like old buses, taxis, coaches and lorries, discouraged from entering the zone through charges.
The Government says that the plans target local measures to tackle the most polluting vehicles in a small number of air quality hotspots, alongside national action.
The Clean Air Zones are to be targeted at areas of each city where the air quality problem is most serious. They aim to reduce the pollution in city centres and encourage the replacement of old, polluting vehicles with modern, cleaner models. The Government says that similar zones in Germany and Denmark have been shown to lead to an improvement in air quality.
Following scoping studies, which the Government will provide funding for, councils will consult on the details on these Zones. Local authorities will only be able to set charges at levels designed to reduce pollution, not to raise additional revenue beyond recovering the costs of the scheme.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: "Our Clean Air Zones are targeted on the largest vehicles, whilst not affecting car owners and minimising the impact on business.
"We want to ensure people can continue to drive into city centres and by targeting action at the most polluting coaches, taxis, buses and lorries we will encourage the use of cleaner vehicles."
Work on accreditation schemes for retrofitted vehicles and alternatively fuelled vehicles is already underway, including the LowCVP initiative to develop an accreditation scheme for low carbon HGV technologies (matched funded by OLEV). The scheme aims to independently validate the fuel consumption savings offered by low carbon retrofit devices under a range of operating conditions and provide reassurance to commercial operators that they will see a return on their investment in the technology. It also assesses the pollutant emissions and can be applied to clean vehicle technology systems.
The LowCVP-developed certification scheme for OLEV’s Low Emission Bus fund also provides comprehensive emissions measurement over real world cycles.
In order to build on these two schemes the Department for Transport has commissioned the LowCVP to develop a new Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme. This will ensure that there is a robust system in place providing independent evidence that any future vehicle retrofit technology schemes will deliver significant NOx emission reductions and air quality benefits whilst simultaneously assessing the carbon performance.
The Accreditation Scheme will cover a wide range of vehicles - buses, taxis, coaches, trucks, mini buses and vans, and will facilitate the development of an approved list of suppliers and technologies. It is expected to be in place by early summer 2016.
Despite recent concern, the Government says that over recent decades, air quality has improved significantly across a range of pollutants. Between 2005 and 2013 emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by 38% and particulate matter has reduced by more than 16%.
However, ClientEarth, which won a legal case on air pollution against the Government earlier this year says that the plans do not go far enough, and says it will take further legal action next year.
The campaign group says that other cities with high NO2 levels, including Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool, should also be required to introduce new pollution rules.
James Thornton, ClientEarth's chief executive, said: "These plans are an outrageous statement to the Supreme Court essentially stating that the Government doesn't intend to comply as soon as possible. It is an arrogant response that is simply not good enough.
"While clean air zones are now promised for six cities - others, such as Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool are not required to have zones."
Alan Andrews, an air quality lawyer for ClientEarth, added: "The Government's latest plan for clean air zones doesn't tackle pollution from passenger cars - one of the biggest sources of pollution, and ignores the problem in dozens of other cities where people are breathing illegal levels of pollution."
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