Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars / vans from 2040 due to fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health and indeed could be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths a year.

The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a lengthy high court legal battle.

The government said the move which will include hybrid vehicles, was needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health. Ministers believe it poses the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing up to £2.7bn in lost productivity in one recent year.

a government spokesman also said. “we are providing councils with new funding to accelerate development of local plans, as part of an ambitious £3bn programme to clean up dirty air around our roads.”

A briefing on parts of the plan, seen by the Guardian, repeats the heavy focus on the steps that can be taken to help councils improve air quality in specific areas where emissions have breached EU thresholds.

Measures to be urgently brought in by local authorities that have repeatedly breached EU rules include:

• Retrofitting buses and other public transport
• Changing road layouts 
• Altering features such as roundabouts and speed humps. 

Prof David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Aston University, said: “The timescale involved here is sufficiently long-term to be taken seriously. If enacted it would send a very clear signal to manufacturers and consumers of the direction of travel and may accelerate a transition to electric cars.”

Britain’s air quality package also includes £1bn in ultra-low emissions vehicles including investing nearly £100m in the UK’s charging infrastructure and funding the ”plug-in car” and “plug-in grant” schemes.

This summary was taken from The Guardian

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