Germany Gives the Go Ahead to Ban Diesel Cars in City Centers

Germany’s Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig will allow Stuttgart and Düsseldorf to ban certain diesel vehicles from entering the city centers in a bid to reduce pollution.

The court ruled Tuesday that certain cities in Germany have the right to ban diesel vehicles from driving into the city centers, with the bans set to be implemented by as early as this year. According to CNN, clean air strategies will begin to be looked at as soon as possible and will likely include restrictions on vehicles that the government deems to be overly pollutant.

In January the European Union’s regulatory body, the European Commission, gave Germany an ultimatum: present a plan to reduce emissions in major city centers, or risk being tried in the European Court of Justice. Germany is home to 26 cities that exceed EU air pollution limits. The Commission estimates that polluted air from vehicle exhausts, along with industry and agriculture emissions, causes around 400,000 deaths in the EU annually.

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In a statement made to CNN, VW said it was “unable to comprehend” the German court’s decision, saying it “threatens to produce a regulatory hotchpotch in Germany.”

“How this decision can be implemented in concrete terms is currently still completely unclear,” the automaker said.

Attitudes towards diesel passengers cars have changed in the aftermath of Volkswagen’s dieselgate scandal. Additionally, the EU decided to take action in regards to regulating diesel passengers cars this year after it was revealed that VW exposed monkeys and human volunteers to diesel pollutants in order to study the effects of the fumes. VW lobbyist Thomas Steg, who acknowledged he was aware of the tests, was suspended following the revelations.

[Source: CNN]