Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt London Assembly recommends tougher stance on diesels in new report
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London Assembly recommends tougher stance on diesels in new report

Date: 14 July 2015   |   Author: Daniel Puddicombe

The powerful London Assembly environment committee is calling for the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to remove diesel vehicles from the capital.

The committee has today released a report, Driving Away from Diesel, which examined London's efforts to reduce pollution from diesel cars, lorries, buses and taxis.

The paper is the committee's latest attack on diesel vehicles, following on from a proposal last month by the committee calling for the mayor to introduce a £2.50 levy on all diesel vehicles entering central London from next year, and a call in February for the city to introduce the Ultra-Low Emission Zone ahead of its 2020 start-date, something the major's office rejected.

The recommendations of the latest report once again urge the mayor to introduce the ULEZ before 2020.

It is also suggesting the British Government take onboard previous proposals for a scrapage scheme linked to replacing non-compliant vehicles with ultra low emission vehicles, and a consultation with the taxi industry.

"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," said London Assembly environment committee member Stephen Knight. "As petrol engines become cleaner with time it's becoming clear that diesel emissions are a large part of the problem, so our report addresses this issue specifically."

"The mayor of London welcomes this report from the London Assembly, which matches with many of his own ambitions for taking swift action on air quality and diesel emissions," a mayor spokeswoman told BusinessCar. "The mayor will continue to lobby the European Union to implement effective on-road testing of diesel vehicle emissions and the Government to use fiscal incentives to encourage only the cleanest vehicles, such as providing funding to scrap the most polluting diesel vehicles."

London is already set to introduce an Ultra Low Emission Zone from September 2020. It will require vehicles travelling in the area, which mirrors the congestion charge zone (see map), to meet the new criteria 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or pay a daily charge.

Diesel cars and small vans must be Euro6-compliant and be registered from 1 September 2015 (five years old or less in 2020), while petrol cars and small vans must meet the Euro4 criteria. These vehicles will still have to pay the daily congestion charge, which currently stands at £11.50 and operates between 7am-6pm Monday to Friday.

Non-compliant vehicles will be allowed inside the zone, but will have to pay a daily charge of £12.50 on top of the Congestion Charge.

Residents living in the ULEZ zone will have a three-year 'sunset period' and do not have to comply with the emissions standards until September 2023.

Johnson's office has previously rejected calls from the Assembly to introduce the ULEZ ahead of 2020, with the mayor's spokeswoman claiming earlier this year: "His world-first Ultra Low Emission Zone is at the heart of the most radical package of measures happening anywhere on the planet to address the issue."

But Knight is demanding stronger action: "When it [the ULEZ] was first proposed, a complete ban on diesels was proposed, and I still think that should happen," he told BusinessCar last month.

He argued a gradual increase in the levy price between now and 2020 would encourage people to switch to cleaner cars when they next change their vehicle: "I want to gently nudge people in the right direction."

The SMMT said "blanket measures" penalising diesel vehicles would be unreasonable as the measures fail to take technological advancements into account.

"Diesel powers 99% of commercial vehicles. and it would be unfair to penalise businesses for investing in the latest Euro6 vehicles," said an SMMT spokesman last month.

Under Knight's diesel levy proposals, Euro6 diesels would still need to pay the levy, which is in contrast to Johnson's ULEZ plans. However, Knight said he would be up for a debate about whether or not the vehicles should be exempt.

"While being cleaner than Euro5 diesels, Euro6 diesels still produce more NOx than petrol vehicles," Knight said.

A current London taxi fitted with a Euro5 diesel engine emits 250mg/km NOx, while a Euro6 1.5-litre diesel Ford Transit Custom emits 76.4mg/km NOx. Despite this, black cabs are exempt from the suggested levy.

According to the SMMT, vehicles powered by Euro6 engines produce 0.08g/km of NOx compared with 0.18g/km for Euro5 diesels and 0.25g/km for Euro4 diesels, while Euro3-spec diesels emit 0.5g/km of NOX.

The SMMT claimed new vehicles sold in 2014 were typically 19.2% more fuel-efficient than those bought in 2009, while it says that UK NOx levels from light vehicles have fallen by 81% since 1990 - the biggest reduction of any sector.

However, Knight also suggested the vehicle taxation system should be changed to reflect a vehicle's NOx emissions as well as the current CO2 emission-based system.

"The Government needs to drive down the CO2. further, and it needs to use those levers to tackle NOx emissions too," he concluded.



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