Paris bans petrol and diesel cars from 2030

CHARLES BREMNER
October 13, 2017
The Times
Vehicles with petrol or diesel engines will be banned from Paris from 2030 under an anti-pollution plan tabled yesterday.
Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, had already announced last year that diesel engines and older petrol cars would be banned by 2024, when the city hosts the Olympics.
Christophe Najdovski, who heads the council’s transport policy, said technology should enable it to phase out all internal combustion vehicles.
He said: “Transport is one of the main greenhouse gas producers … so we are planning an exit from combustion engine vehicles, or fossil-energy vehicles, by 2030. When we see this increase in extreme weather, climate change is at work, and it’s the responsibility of the cities that are concerned to take measures.”
Like France, Britons will be able to buy only hybrid or electric cars after 2040. Norway, which has the world’s highest proportion of electric vehicles, has decided to allow sales of only hybrid or all-electric cars by 2025. India, whose cities are among the most polluted in the world, has set a target of 2030 to introduce electric-only sales.
The 2030 deadline for Paris will not be difficult to enforce because only 40 per cent of residents own cars, Mr Najdovski said. The arrival of autonomous self-driving electric vehicles will also help, he added. The council did not say whether hybrid vehicles, which carry both combustion and electric engines, would be permitted.
Ms Hidalgo and her predecessor Bertrand Delanoe, also a member of the Socialist Party, have angered drivers and businesses with policies to reduce traffic through central Paris, where 2.5 million people live. There are no tolls but pedestrian and cycling areas have been enlarged and driving lanes and streets narrowed or closed to cars. A report showed that Ms Hidalgo’s closure of the expressway on the right bank of the Seine river between the Louvre Museum and Bastille two years ago had reduced pollution in that zone but not in the city overall.
The council has created a self-service electric car network, called Autolib’, and has pioneered a self-service bicycle system. Electric buses are replacing diesel vehicles. The council is counting on measures across the metropolitan region to curb pollution in line with the UN climate change accords that were agreed in Paris two years ago.
Paris, like Copenhagen and Berlin, committed itself to be carbon neutral and dependant only on renewable energy by 2050. Paris and the region are investing heavily in public transport before the Olympics.
The biggest scheme, the Grand Paris Express, is a 200km automated railway line running around the capital. The network will be mainly underground and will also link Charles de Gaulle airport to the city centre.
The Times