Report on the Establishment of ZFEs: Low Emission Zones and Social Justice

“As they are organized today, the low emission zones risk excluding the most modest because not everyone has the possibility of financing a non-polluting vehicle despite the aid that exists”. This is the finding of the report on the establishment of ZFEs, presented this Monday, July 10 by the mayor of Toulouse, Jean Luc Moudenc, to the Minister for Ecological Transition. First consequence: traffic restrictions are relaxed, Toulouse is concerned.

The mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, coordinator of the report of the national consultation committee on the ZFE, presented to Christophe Béchu, this Monday July 10 the “25 proposals to combine ecological transition and social justice”. The consultation committee calls for more “flexibility”, in order to adapt the EPZs to the reality of pollution and to eliminate “the specter of a crisis of yellow vests”.

“This morning we were in the mood to say that we are not contesting the ZFE device because we know that the issue is important for public health. There are 47,000 deaths on average per year due to air pollution and two years less life expectancy due to this pollution. specifies the mayor this evening during a press conference.

The ban on Critair 3 vehicles is no longer required in Toulouse, the city no longer has an obligation to reinforce its current restrictions. Jean-Luc Moudenc confirms the information and will propose to the council of the Métropole to “suspend this provision but the numbers will have to be good”specifies the elected official.

“We go back on nothing, what is acquired today is maintained, the last variable is criterion 3”, adds the president of the metropolis.

For the mayor of the pink city, it is also a question of avoiding “the risk of social fracture”.

In response, the government has decided to relax traffic restrictions in urban areas not affected by pollution thresholds being exceeded. Toulouse no longer has an obligation to reinforce its current restrictions. The government has decided, the rules are relaxed for cities that had already set up a ZFE, such as Toulouse and Montpellier.

Toulouse: the Critair 3 sticker suspended

In Toulouse, cars with Criterion 4 and 5 vignettes have been banned from city traffic for 7 months now. Voices were also raised against these restrictions and the file remains explosive.

From 2024, vehicles whose sticker displays criterion 3 should be banned in the city,”Not everyone can do it”explains the vice-president of Urban France, an association which brings together the major French cities.

The report published by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Social Cohesion specifies “that there are now two types of territories whose names will now be different in order to highlight their situation and the associated level of constraint: those which respect the thresholds and those which do not respect them”.

The ministers present are committed to several proposals, explains the mayor of Toulouse.

In this report of the national consultation committee on the ZFE, the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc asks for several measures of relaxation such as the reform of the criterion sticker with “the possibility of having a technical inspection carried out by an approved professional who guarantees that a vehicle, however old, does not pollute”.

The report also proposes the establishment of exemptions for small riders, such as the elderly who rarely use their vehicle.

In addition, the committee invites the government to “double state aid” and not to limit this aid to the lowest incomes “so as not to exclude the middle classes”. Despite the existing mechanisms, the remaining charge for households is too high. The report thus recommends extending the system to the purchase of used cars.

“The ministers gave us their agreement in principle concerning the fact of helping more, of reducing the remainder payable by users. The minister announced that out of the 7 billion in mobility aid, a part would be directed towards ZFE, the increase in aid that we are asking for. All of this will be taken into account in the 2024 finance law.”specifies the mayor of Toulouse.

Finally, the members of the committee ask the government to make eligible for aid the inhabitants of the territories neighboring the metropolises where the ZFEs exist. This population represents almost half of the users of these spaces.

Massively multiply the RER or express bus lines. An alternative that can only exist with the help of the state, according to elected officials.

These proposals were the subject of a broad consensus of a wide variety of actors and political sensitivities, explains Jean-Luc Moudenc. A committee which brought together representatives of all urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants who are required to deploy an EPZ by 2025. Representatives of transport and logistics companies, craftsmen and associations.

A statement shared by Adie Occitanie. The association warns for several months, the public authorities on the timetable for the implementation of the ZFEs (in Toulouse and Montpellier today, in Nîmes and Perpignan by 2025) and its impact on small entrepreneurs, precarious workers, job seekers.

“L’association advocates for a truly inclusive transition : if the establishment of EPZs is essential with regard to health and environmental issues, the calendar and the aid systems as currently envisaged could quite simply put their activity on hold. Such a risk cannot be incurred, all the more so in such an uncertain economic and social context”, explains the association in a press release.

To move from a logic of incentive to a logic of solidarity, Adie Occitanie has issued concrete proposals for the Occitan territory, which are in line with certain measures mentioned in the report submitted to the Minister this morning:

Extend the Conversion Bonus to the lowest incomes and open it to first-time buyers Go through ADIE to advance the Conversion Bonus Remove the CO2 emission threshold criterion for Crit’Air 1 vehicles occasion Offer aid for the acquisition of Crit’Air 2 vehicles, outside the ZFE

In Toulouse, for the ZFE Suspension collective, the mayor of Toulouse “plays a double game”. According to Robert Marquié, “Since the time he has not agreed when he is willing to do everything to include precede the government in the application of the ZFE, we no longer know what to believe”.

5 French cities still exceed the authorized pollution threshold and must “respect the legislative restriction schedule resulting in restrictions for diesel cars over 14 years old and petrol cars over 19 years old on January 1, 2025 (CRitAir3)”. On the other hand, for the 31 agglomerations which were to or have set up an EPZ by 2025 “the only obligation provided for by law is the restriction of circulation of cars registered until December 31, 1996 before January 1, 2025″according to the ministry.

The European Union is working on a directive that would take up WHO standards by 2030. “If in 2020 we reach the same thresholds as in 202, 80% of urban areas in France will be affected, everyone will move to an EPZ, this is why we must encourage the renewal of the car fleet without waiting for 2030” , adds Jean-Luc Moudenc.

The government should specify the final ZFE system next September, after the report by Barbara Pompili, former Minister for Ecological Transition, is delivered. A report that will put into perspective the situation of cities at European level.

#ZFE #easing #traffic #restrictions #ban #Critair #vehicles #longer #required #Toulouse