PARIS: Paris on Monday banned all diesel vehicles aged 13 years or over from the city centre, the latest move in a campaign to tackle pollution on the city’s streets.
Diesel vehicles over 18 years old and petrol vehicles over 21 years old are already banned in Paris — a measure that was extended Monday to a new “low-emissions” belt surrounding the city.
Central Paris meanwhile went further by also banning diesel cars, trucks and motorbikes aged 13 years and over — a move aimed at cleaning up the air in a city that is regularly shrouded in smog.
Motorists who flout the traffic restrictions in central Paris, which were trialled during last week’s heatwave, face a 68-euro ($77) fine, rising to 135 euros for trucks and buses. A Greenpeace report listed Paris as the worst western European capital for small particle air pollution in 2018, with levels higher than cities such as the Philippines capital Manila or the Colombian capital Bogota.
Beyond the city’s boundaries, the authorities are also clamping down on polluters in the 47 districts that ring the central Paris region, which are home to around 5.5 million people. Unlike in central Paris, however, offenders in the suburbs, where car dependency is greater, face no punishment for the first two years of the ban.
The government agreed to a two-year punishment-free “learning period” after resistance from some mayors who feared that the ban could rekindle the “yellow vest” protests, which erupted late last year among motorists furious over fuel price hikes.
The protests quickly escalated into an anti-government revolt, marked by weekly demonstrations in cities around France that have regularly turned violent. — AFP
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