How Long Will it Take Before London’s Air is Safe?

London’s problems with air quality are well-documented. Not only has the UK capital failed to meet EU minimum legal thresholds for air quality for the past five years, but according to the latest air pollution abatement plan drafted by the government at the tail end of last year, it will not comply for at least 10 years more.

This is despite plans to bring in Clean Air Zones in London and other adversely-affected cities across the UK. The plans, which aim to restrict the more polluting vehicles by imposing fines upon them entering the city, have been criticised for not doing enough and not doing it quickly enough.

What are the Clean Air Zones?

In an attempt to improve air quality and reduce transport-related pollution, the government is looking to introduce measures in the capital and five other cities, including Southampton, Leeds, Derby, Nottingham and Birmingham.

The proposed plans will charge the owners of diesel buses, taxis, lorries and coaches which contribute the most pollution to the atmosphere. However, privately-owned passenger cars, which make up almost 90% of all of the traffic on the nation’s roads, will be entirely exempt from the fee.

“Our clean air zones are targeted on the largest vehicles, whilst not affecting car owners and minimising the impact on business,” explained Elizabeth Truss, the Secretary for the Environment.  “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.”

Criticism for the Response

Basically, it seems to some critics as though the government are keen to make the right noises without upsetting any of their voters. Furthermore, the bans aren’t scheduled to come into place until 2020, meaning that in the intervening five years, a huge amount of harmful emissions will still be spouted into the environment.

“These are better than the draft plans but they’re still not good enough. They need to go much further and much faster, and we’ll be going back to court,” said Andrew Murphy, a lawyer representing Client Earth. It was this NGO which originally took the government to task over their non-compliance with EU regulations and won a Supreme Court case against them last year.

“The original deadline for compliance was 2010,” he went on. “The Supreme Court ordered plans to achieve compliance as soon as possible, yet the government is acting as if 2020 is somehow okay. Every year that goes by, thousands more people will die or be made seriously ill.”

As with most problems of this kind, it appears that flexibility will be key to overcoming these air pollution abatement challenges. Clearly, however, the current plans are not drastic or far-reaching enough to tackle the very real dangers posed by London’s dirty air.