The UK government has finally published its plans to cut air pollution, after it lost a court case last week聽and was ordered to do so.
The plans suggest measures ranging from a 鈥渢argeted鈥� scrappage scheme to take the most-polluting vehicles off the road and retrofitting local bus and lorry fleets, to removing road humps to improve traffic flow, and encouraging more electric cars.
Air pollution is linked to an estimated 40,000 early deaths a year and 37 out of 43 areas across the UK are exceeding legal European Union limits for key pollutant nitrogen dioxide, much of which comes from diesel engines.
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Documents published by the government show the most effective way to cut illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide is to introduce charges on the dirtiest vehicles in pollution hot-spots in towns and cities.
While local authorities can introduce charging zones, as London is planning to do, the government is warning town halls they should only bring in charges as a last resort.
Ministers were ordered to draw up the new clean air plans following a court challenge by environmental lawyers ClientEarth, with the High Court ruling that existing government proposals to meet EU-mandated pollution limits were not sufficient.
The Environment Department (Defra) lost a last-minute High Court bid to delay revealing the draft plans to reduce illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide until after the general election.
But campaigners and opposition politicians have warned the new plans are woefully inadequate.
They accused the government of failing to commit to a diesel scrappage scheme and of shifting responsibility onto local authorities to clean up the problem 鈥� while not providing them with funding.
With the political parties now campaigning for the general election, the Tories said they were opposed to Labour鈥檚 approach of 鈥渉itting motorists in the pocket鈥� by imposing charging zones and increasing parking charges.
鈥淚mproving air quality is a key priority as we support businesses in building a stronger and cleaner economy,鈥� said environment secretary Andrea Leadsom. 鈥淥ur plan today sets out how we will do just that 鈥� including presenting options for targeted diesel scrappage schemes.鈥�
The documents suggest a scheme paying motorists to trade in their old cars and vans could see 9,000 of the most-polluting diesel vehicles and 6,000 old petrol vehicles scrapped and replaced by electric models.
Alternatively, it could be targeted at vehicles from a specific sector, particular areas or individuals.
鈥淭he Government is standing idly by while Britain chokes,鈥� said Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party. 鈥淭his feeble plan won鈥檛 go anywhere near far enough in tackling this public health emergency.鈥�
Greenpeace UK鈥檚 Doug Parr said: 鈥淎 plan to help drivers swap polluting diesel for electric cars would be a good idea but the government鈥檚 proposal lacks scale and detail.鈥�
鈥淲hat鈥檚 worse,鈥� he said, 鈥渢he Government is not just passing the buck to local authorities, it鈥檚 also tying one hand behind their backs by making it hard to phase out polluting cars and giving no new funds for delivery.鈥�
