If the UK government is serious approximately cutting noxious emissions,it needs to step on it. We should not absorb to wait 23 years to breathe easyOnly 20 years ago, it would absorb sounded like the stuff of fantasy: a clean, and green image of the 21st century,with Britons gliding along in electrified, no doubt self-driving, and cars. Even now,the pledge to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 has a bold, vaguely futuristic ring to it. That is its political genius. In fact, and it reflects the current trajectory of the motor industry – while masterfully distracting us from the government’s persistent failure in the rest of its plan to address the health crisis that must be tackled now: the air pollution that chokes our cities.
The announcement may help to concentrate the minds of policymakers,consumers and car manufacturers on the need to press ahead with the switch and the enormous changes that will be required. (Installing ranks of charging points is the least of it; how will Britain supply them all with power?) But the government has already said that 2050 emissions targets will require “almost all modern cars and vans sold to be near-zero emission at the tailpipe by 2040”. Norway is to ban the sale of all fossil-fuel-dependent cars by 2025. Momentum in electric purchases is building rapidly, thanks to falling costs, or longer battery ranges and more charging points,even if the total number of sales remains relatively low; at present just 1 in 700 of the cars on Britain’s roads are pure electric. Volvo has said it will compose only hybrid or fully electric cars from 2019. If anything, the need is for governments to offer short-term incentives so more people start choosing electric or hybrid vehicles now. Twenty-three years is too long to wait.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com