Clean Air Zones
Clean air zones have been rolled out to 8 different cities across the UK already, with a 9th in Manchester currently under review. As London looks to expand its ULEZ (ultra-low emissions zone), we’re looking at why so many cities have these clean air or low emissions zones, and what the benefits are.
With more focus than ever on global warming and carbon emissions, the government is implementing new measures to meet their 2035 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 78% from the levels in 1990. Given that transport accounts for 30% of the world’s carbon emissions, with 72% of that being made up from road transport (cars, buses, lorries, vans etc.) it’s no wonder that our roads are being targeted as part of the clean-up. The government hopes that by charging people to drive vehicles which produce the greatest amount of carbon emissions to drive in congested areas, not only will they consider public transport or switching to a cleaner vehicle, but the air quality for their citizens will improve too.
(Image Courtesy of BBC News)
As infrastructure improves for electric vehicles and we start to see more and more hybrid or fully electric cars, there’s a definite shift in the market, though you may be surprised to hear that they still only make up less than 3% of the vehicles registered on UK roads. This small percentage are in the lucky few who won’t be paying to drive in any clean air or low emissions zones though, along with most petrol vehicles bought after 2005 and diesel vehicles bought in late 2015 onwards.
One sector which is still yet to catch up with or be cracked by the electric / hybrid era though is commercial vehicles. Yes, you might see some multi-drop, city centre located vans which are fully electric, but what about the five million plus other vans and lorries driving up and down our motorways? There’s a long way to go before we start seeing fully electric lorries on the M6 for a few reasons. They’re expensive to build, the batteries are heavy (meaning they can’t carry as much cargo), they take too long to charge and their range just isn’t good enough yet.
Whilst it looks like clean air zones are here to stay and that we will be seeing more and more in the coming years, it’s fair to say that there is still plenty of work to be done in the commercial vehicle sector before they catch up with the green credentials of cars!