A leading environmental expert has stated that the escalating air pollution crisis in the United Kingdom, now known to be fuelled by diesel emissions, should be the responsibility of the motor companies themselves to address. As it stands, diesel drivers are given relatively little incentive to scrap their cars and upgrade, as many within the government float and discuss proposals wherein diesel drivers would be taxed and punished financially.
Having faced similar problems, the French and German governments have issued blanket orders requiring certain major car manufacturers to address issues regarding diesel vehicles emitting considerably more toxic pollution than official tests suggested.
Many experts now believe that the solution to the problem in the UK lies in similar measures – the producers of the vehicles themselves taking responsibility, rather than it being shouldered by the everyday diesel driver.
“The polluter should be paying, not the consumer and not the taxpayer. But the UK is doing nothing,” commented Greg Archer, former UK government air pollution expert and NGO Transport & Environment representative.
“If the car industry was required to recall those vehicles and upgrade the after-treatment system that would make a sizeable difference to the air pollution problems in our cities,”
“We wouldn’t need to pay for a scrappage scheme. It is time for the [manufacturers] who caused the problem to pay for the problem.”
Speaking on behalf of the environmental law firm that has now successfully sued the government twice in the high court, James Thornton backed the idea of standing up for the everyday motorist and turning attention to manufacturers.
“The prime minister must get on the side of ordinary car drivers and stand up to the car industry by committing to a programme of mandatory vehicle recall, compensation, random on-road testing and a clean-car label based on real-world emissions,” said Thornton on behalf of ClientEarth.
There are two very important issues to be addressed by the government right now. The first of which being that research suggests at least 40,000 people die every year as a direct result of excessive air pollution. On top of this, it was as recently as 2001 when the government was actually incentivising the purchase of diesel cars, having offered significant road tax reductions for diesel car drivers.
The Conservatives are expected to publish full details of a proposed scrappage scheme shortly, though some are convinced that no such scheme will have any positive impact whatsoever.
“Scrappage schemes don’t work, because the people that can afford to buy brand new cars are not the ones driving about in [polluting] ones more than 10 years old,” added Archer.
“Also, we should not be rewarding the car industry by boosting sales.”
The additional £10 levy imposed on diesel car drivers in Central London as of October has already drawn widespread criticism, though there’s every possibility the same could be repeated elsewhere soon enough.
