The Government is proposing a number of measures to reduce emissions levels in the UK, including changes to motorway speed limits, a scrappage scheme and the widespread introduction of clean air zones.
A "targeted scrappage scheme for older, more polluting vans or cars" could be developed to contribute to the cost of purchasing a cleaner vehicle, said the report. The suggested scheme stipulates that any car scrapped would have to be replaced with a fully electric vehicle (see more details below), but added this is just one option.
It also said that if scrappage was identified as an appropriate mitigation measure, any scheme would need to "provide value for money, target support where it was most needed, be deliverable at local authority level and minimise the scope for fraud".
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrea Ledsom, commented: "Improving air quality is a key priority. Our plan today sets out how we will just do that - including presenting options for target diesel scrappage schemes."
The proposal also states that the Government has concluded that adjusting speed limits "could be practicable" in helping emissions levels but added that it needed further monitoring in real world conditions before making a decision. It suggested that dropping the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 60mph would help improve air quality and would "have no impact on congestion".
It also outlines how a so-called Clean Air Zone would be implemented, stating that vehicles meeting a minimum standard would gain free entry into the zone. This would include diesel cars that comply with Euro 6 emissions standards and petrol cars that meet Euro 4 standards.
Fully electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would not be charged, while hybrid vehicles that meet minimum emissions requirements could also be exempt.
In addition, the plan outlines new funding to relieve road congestion, first announced last year, and extra funding for hydrogen vehicle infrastucture and uptake of hydrogen vehicles.
The Government also announced it is developing an accreditation scheme, to be launched this year, that will ensure that owners of older, higher-polluting vehicles can be confident that retrofit technologies applied will provide the necessary emissions reductions for free entry into a Clean Air Zone. However, this is largely focussed on commercial vehicles rather than private cars.
The proposals are laid out in a draft plan from the Government called the Clean Air Zone Framework, released today, that intends to improve air quality by reducing levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the UK.
The plans are now open for public consultation until 15 June, ahead of the final air quality plan’s publication on 31 July.
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Cobnapint said
Speed Limits
My reasoning for this are as follows :
Cars today are considerably more efficient and we are getting more and more hybrid and electric cars which we all agree on the future. So to reduce speed limits is in fact a red herring on motorway in the longer term.
Cars today are considerably safer with both active and passive protection and therefore speed reduction is left necessary. Cars today also much more capable.
If the speed limit or dropped on motorways we will see more accidents, in my humble opinion, than by raising the speed limit. Sitting on the motorway driving at 60 miles an hour is mindnumbing and leads to greater lapses in Concentration.
It is therefore another case, if the speed on the motorway it's reduced, of society going backwards. This is a case of liberals and the nanny state feeling they are doing the right thing when in fact this creates more issues than it solved.
Are we saying planes should cruise at lower speeds, the trains should drive slower and countless other examples?
As usual politics is dominated by appearing to do the right thing but not actually doing the right thing. We are being overtaken by well meaning liberals the overly political correct and the nanny state and this is actually doing harm.
Koatsey wrote:
Totally correct about not actually doing the right thing. The right thing would be to encourage people to buy fewer new cars, in fact to prohibit people from buying more than one in any ten year period, rather instead to encourage keeping old cars running for longer.
Increasing the longevity of not just cars but everything we manufacture, is the only truly environmentally friendly course. There is no other option for preserving the resources of the planet and for limiting the pollution we create. There has never been a car made, and there never will be, which justifies the scrapping of an existing car with useful life remaining in order to make it.
JLR are talking rubbish again
The government and even the London Mayor keep missing the mark. We don't need *any* diesel in cities. No busses should be diesel, they can be LPG/Natural gas if you want fossil fuels. No Taxi's should be exempt from diesel limits. All local delivery vans can be electric.
Diesel is like a drug no one can seem to get off of. There is always a diesel junkie crying for one last fix. Telling you it's OK really.
AAJ and soldi are just petrol junkies
If soldi and AAJ can actually read they could look at the real figures on emmissions and see that current diesel cars emit similar numbers of particulates to current direct injection petrol cars. Maybe they could look at reviews on you tube in America where the current diesel pick ups with 6 litre and over engines have tailpipes that are completely clean and leave no soot on your finger if you wipe the inside of the pipe unlike older vehicles.
Maybe they should look at Wikipedia where it shows that petrol cars produce many times the amount of deadly CO as diesels do.
As for the belief that electric or gas vans or lorries are feasible without huge extra costs they must live in a different world to the rest of us. As for ships being a major source of pollution that is wrong. There are old ships, they can last for 30 years, but modern ships have exhaust gas treatment and are more efficient than any electric power station.
If you care to live in a city you must expect to suffer from all the dust from tyres, brakes, gas heating pollution, etc. A recent test conducted by the BBC in London showed the worst particulate pollution was in the tube network, not many diesels operating down there. But as anti diesel junkies you of course cannot see beyond your blinkers.