| Topic: | Re:Council/TFL still not taking it seriously | |
| Posted by: | Richard Carter | |
| Date/Time: | 20/03/13 09:19:00 |
| It's not just WBC and TfL who are ignoring this issue: government is too. There's an interesting piece by John Vidal in today's Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/19/uk-air-pollution-health-crisis) that contains these two paras: "Faced with massive health costs, threatened with large fines for not complying with EU laws passed 13 years ago, and warned last week by the UN World Health Organisation that exposure to NO2 is harmful at far lower levels than the limits currently set by Europe, you might think the government would act. But Britain has spent nearly 15 years ignoring the problem, lobbying to extend timetables, working with other countries to weaken the rules and giving financial incentives for people to switch to the most polluting technologies. Ministers admit they are breaking the laws but claim it is not possible to meet the EU limits. Mayor Boris Johnson has tried small-scale techno-fixes like living walls of plants and dust suppressants but these measures have been shown to be not nearly enough. Last week he proposed an "ultra low emission zone", which would ban all but the very lowest emission vehicles from central London during working hours. But the measure would not come into force until 2020 and was widely dismissed as PR." So don't expect anything substantive to be done any time soon.... |