Posted on July 18, 2023
Are ZFEs in trouble? Only five agglomerations (Paris, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Rouen and Strasbourg) will now be required to tighten traffic conditions linked to “Low Emission Zones”, instead of the eleven initially planned. A backpedal to avoid the social crisis… but not health.
Regarding the implementation of the ZFEs, only five agglomerations have finally the obligation to pursue a tightening of the restrictions.
Although the State was ordered for the first time to compensate two families, whose children were ill after pollution peaks in Paris, the government has decided to relax the traffic restrictions linked to the ZFEs. Namely: “Low Emission Zones”, the cornerstone of the government’s air pollution policy.
Established by the mobility orientation laws (LOM) of 2019 and Climate and Resilience of 2021, the main objective of the ZFEs is to gradually reduce the presence of the most polluting vehicles in certain metropolises, defined according to the Crit’Air sticker , with traffic restrictions tightened over the years. Set up in 11 large cities, the law plans to generalize them in 42 other cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants, by the end of 2024.
Source: Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion
But EPZs are far from unanimous. Many cities have already postponed their implementation. The metropolis of Greater Paris has decided to slow down. The capital, which was to ban vehicles with Crit’Air 3 stickers from driving this summer, has once again postponed its implementation until after the Olympic Games, i.e. at the start of 2025 against 2022 initially planned. On the political side, it is also reluctant. The right calls for its development while the extreme right simply wants to abolish the EPZs.
The government is letting go
The Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, who assures that he does not want to abolish the ZFEs, decided on Monday July 10 to relax the traffic restrictions in the agglomerations where the pollution thresholds are not exceeded. This reduces to only five the number of cities where the obligations must be tightened, in accordance with the law. Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Rouen will have to prohibit by January 2025 vehicles classified Crit’Air 5, 4 and 3 in the ZFE.
The Minister for the Ecological Transition defends himself concerning the relaxation of “low emission zones”. Only five agglomerations have the obligation to pursue a tightening of traffic restrictions, where the pollution thresholds are exceeded. #le69inter pic.twitter.com/2MiC2fymHX
— France Inter (@franceinter) July 11, 2023
For the 37 remaining agglomerations, they are still summoned to set up a ZFE by 2025 but they will now have only one obligation: to ban from circulation cars registered until December 31, 1996 before January 1 2025 (unclassified). And those which have already set up a ZFE, like Toulouse, Grenoble or Nice, “no longer have any obligation to reinforce their current restrictions given that they do not exceed the pollution thresholds”, justifies Christophe Bechu.
A social justice issue
“The objective is not to annoy the French or to take anti-poor measures” affirmed the minister, who wishes to defuse a potential “social bomb” and avoid a new episode of ‘Yellow Vests’. For the mayor of Toulouse (various right), Jean-Luc Moudenc, coordinator of a report on the subject, it is necessary “to combine ecological transition and social justice”. For this, it would be necessary to double state aid for the purchase of less polluting vehicles, or to facilitate the purchase with an extension of zero-rate loans. Measures of social “acceptability” which should be taken in the fall, according to Christophe Béchu.
A backpedal to avoid the social crisis… but not health. It has been proven that EPZs have beneficial effects on the health of local residents. In a study published in early July in The Lancet Public Health, researchers from Imperial College London have confirmed that Low Emission Zones, like Congestion Charging Zones (CCZs), have a positive impact on health in several cities across the UK. Europe or Asia. They particularly noted a significant drop in cardiovascular diseases after the establishment of EPZs, as well as a reduction in road accidents associated with congestion charges.
As a reminder, the Council of State has condemned the French government twice (2021 and 2022) for its inability to enforce pollution level standards in the main agglomerations. A bill which now amounts to 30 million euros. Air pollution kills 40,000 people prematurely every year in France.
#backpedalling #detriment #health
