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Road Transport and Air Quality - Progress Questioned

30-10-2013

The failure of motor vehicle manufacturers and regulators to deliver real reductions in emissions from diesel vehicles has caused a major challenge to meeting the EU limit values and UK objectives for nitrogen dioxide.

This is set out in an article published in Local Transport Today (Issue 633, 18-31 October 2013, available here) by Duncan Laxen and Stephen Moorcroft.  This failure has led to the UK Government being challenged in the courts and risking financial penalties. Another consequence is that over half the local authorities in the UK have declared Air Quality Management Areas - and this number has been increasing, not decreasing as was expected.  Local authorities have to develop Action Plans, but many of the measures that have been implemented have been hindered by the failure of new vehicles to deliver the expected reduction in emissions.  

A further issue is that climate change and local air quality agendas are not always in harmony – and policies to encourage the uptake of diesel vehicles have had negative impacts on local air quality.  Whilst the promotion of hybrid and electric vehicles should benefit both climate change and local air quality in the future, the expected growth in road transport may offset this, and it is likely that the road transport sector will remain the dominant source of pollution for many years to come.

This article was produced as part of the 20 year anniversary of Air Quality Consultants Ltd.



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