German cities are starting to introduce bans on older diesel vehicles that emit higher amounts of pollutants than later models after the country’s highest administrative court in February confirmed such bans are permissible.
Germany’s cities have for years disregarded Europe’s clean air rules, prompting environmental groups to sue local governments in an attempt to force bans of some heavily polluting vehicles. The first diesel ban took effect in May in Hamburg.
Diesel car sales in Germany fell to 31.1 percent of the total in the first half of 2018 from 41.3 percent a year earlier, while in the European Union sales declined by 16 percent during the period.
After a court ruling in Cologne on Nov. 8, imposing diesel driving bans in certain areas of West Germany’s Cologne and Bonn, another court ruled on Thursday November 15 that authorities must also ban diesel vehicles from parts of two other cities and a busy motorway in Germany’s industrial heartland.
Bans were decided in the following cities: Essen, Gelsenkirchen (including a part of the A40 motorway), Bonn, Cologne, Mainz, Stuttgart, Aachen, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Berlin, Dusseldorf.
Initially bans include EURO IV or worse vehicles and they will extend to Euro V along 2019.
Source: Reuters