A good week for air quality!
Air quality news used to be pretty consistently doom and gloom. However, the world is waking up to the devestating health and environmental effects of pollution, and big business can not ignore the public’s demand for more responsible operations.
Take a look through this week’s air quality victories:
Monday: Fiat Chrysler to kill off diesel in all cars by 2022
Diesel is the bad guy in all this. There are, of course, many other sources of pollution. But diesel cars, perhaps because they were previously touted as less damaging than petrol, and then with the enormous backlash following the VW emissions scandal, has a definite edge of the sinister. As demand for these cars falls dramatically, Fiat Chrysler have announced that they will kill off diesel in all passenger cars by 2022, following similar announcements from Toyota and VW (naturally). Read more.
Tuesday: German court rules cities can ban diesel cars to tackle pollution
The top adminstrative German court ruled that cities can ban diesel cars as the country attempts to improve deadly levels of pollution.
It’s estimated that 12 million vehicles would be effected. So, policy like this needs to be enacted carefully and with the car owners in mind. That being said, pollution is an urgent matter and it requires an urgent reaction. This is good news for air quality in Germany. Read on.
Wednesday: Rome will ban diesel cars from 2024
And the reason is two-fold — to protect historical site from pollution damage, and reduce Rome’s contribution to environmental damage.
It was fitting that as Rome’s Mayor Virginia Raggi announced this at a climate conference, a snow storm hit Rome. An unusual occurance for a mediterannean country which doesn’t usually experience freezing weather, and a perfect literal example of climate change and environmental damage.
She also announced aims to plant 90,000 trees around the city and a series of programmes to eventually achieve zero waste. More info.
Wednesday: Israel’s Energy Minister calls for banning fossil fuels for cars and electricity by 2030
Could this be the start of Israel’s green energy industry? Minister Yuval Steinitz said that diesel and gasoline-based cars would be banned from importation in 12 years, and that he wanted the economy to become entirely dependent on renewable energy and natural gas.
Such a move could put Israel on the green-tech map. We look forward to seeing the master plan of how this transformation is going to take place! Read on.
Friday: Leicester to charge for non-Euro VI buses, pledging to delivery clean air zone by 2020
Non-compliant buses will be charged after the bus operators pledged with the council to deliver a clean air zone by 2020. Leicster’s Air Quality Action Plan was launched in 2015, and since then they’ve seen £20 million invested by operators in improving their fleets to reach higher air quality standards.
Good for Leicster! Read more.
