A War on Cars?

London’s Pollution Charge Sparks Political Battle | Mint 30/08/23, 9:46 AM

A War on Cars? London’s Pollution

Charge Sparks Political Battle
Drivers with older cars will have to pay about $16 to
drive in the British capital
WSJ

A vandalized surveillance camera in London’s newly expanded ultralow emission zone.

A London project to create the world’s largest low-emission zone took

effect on Tuesday as authorities imposed a daily charge on the most-
polluting vehicles, triggering a debate between those who see the move
as a sensible step to clean up the air and those who say it amounts to a
war on cars.

While several big European cities like Berlin and Paris also impose charges
on polluting cars and trucks, London has been a pioneer on the issue. It
became the first major European city to force drivers to pay a congestion

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fee in 2003. But it has also become a lightning rod for a wider debate
across many leading cities in the world about who should bear the costs
of meeting pollution targets.

New York City has repeatedly delayed plans to become the first major
North American city to impose a congestion charge for cars, a plan that
faces heavy opposition from commuters in neighboring New Jersey.
Madrid implemented a low-emission zone and briefly suspended it in
2019, but then reinstated it under judicial order. It now plans to expand it
to the entire city next year.

The London rules broadly mean that anyone with a gasoline-powered car
that was built before 2006, or a diesel vehicle registered before 2015, will
now have to pay 12.50 pounds a day, equivalent to about $16, to drive in
London or buy a newer car. The so-called ultralow emission zone, or
ULEZ, was first imposed in 2019 in the heart of London but as of Tuesday
it will encompass the whole city, adding some five million more residents
to the restrictions.

Low-emission zones are already in place in several big British cities and
have enjoyed broad political support. But the expansion in London has
generated far more controversy. The ruling Conservative government has
leapt on the expansion as an example of politicians chasing environmental
targets at all costs, accusing the opposition Labour Party, which runs
London, of being anti-car. It has also played up Labour’s goals to stop any
new oil drilling and exploration in Britain.

Five Conservative-led London councils launched a legal bid to block the

expansion but lost. They argued that the public transport system isn’t as
dense in outer London so people there are more dependent on their cars
and are, on average, poorer than residents in the center of the capital so
can’t afford new ones.

Londoners are also divided: Those in the central part of the city where the

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A War on Cars? London’s Pollution Charge Sparks Political Battle | Mint 30/08/23, 9:46 AM

regulations already exist generally favor it, but those on the outskirts are
heavily against it. On Tuesday, images were posted on social media
showing vandalized cameras—used to track cars entering the low-
emission zone—in some parts of London.

“This is an unusual environment policy in that it involves a very substantial

upfront cost [paid by drivers]," said Rob Ford, professor of political
science at the University of Manchester. “Most environmental policies are
phased in but with this the point of maximum negative impact is
immediate."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan says the existing low-emission zone has
sharply increased the number of vehicles that meet pollution
requirements and cut levels of key toxins like nitrogen dioxide. He has said
the owners of 90% of London vehicles won’t have to pay anything. The
RAC, a car insurance company, however, says the move could affect
nearly 700,000 vehicles. Those who don’t pay the levy face a £180 fine.

Khan told the BBC that the choice to expand the levy was a “difficult
decision but a vital one." He stressed that residents with cars or vans that
don’t meet the emissions standards can access grants of up to £2,000 to
replace their vehicles.

After former Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit as a Conservative

lawmaker in a west London district, a special vote was held to find his
replacement. The Conservatives unexpectedly won the seat after focusing
their campaign heavily on criticizing Khan’s plan to expand the low-
emission zone.

That victory has spurred a wider rethink by the Conservative government,

which previously championed environmental policies but is trailing in the
polls and on track to lose an election expected next year. Transport
Secretary Mark Harper, who has no control over the low-emission policy in
London, said Tuesday it was “a money-raising exercise and this is

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A War on Cars? London’s Pollution Charge Sparks Political Battle | Mint 30/08/23, 9:46 AM

absolutely not the time to be putting all those costs on hard-pressed and
hard-working Londoners and those in the area outside London."

Johnson once described the extension of the emission charges as “bone-

headed cruelty." But when serving as mayor of London, Johnson
introduced the ULEZ program in 2015, after a consultation showed 79% of
Londoners were in favor of improving London’s air quality.

—William Boston in Berlin contributed to this article.

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