Nearly half of London’s roads will still be over legal pollution limits in 2020, says Green Party.
Jenny Jones, leader of the London Green Party, has said that 45% of the main road network will have harmful and illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by 2020. She went on to say that the predicted pollution levels used modelling techniques that were set out in the mayor’s 2010 Air Quality Strategy. The mayor’s office however has said that the NO2 levels have decreased by 20% since Boris Johnson took office in 2008.
European Union air quality laws state that daily pollution levels must not be above the legal limit on more than 35 days in a calendar year. A big fine can be given to cities that are found in breach of EU law.
Ms Jones said: “Boris Johnson and the government’s dithering on tackling air pollution meant we missed meeting legal limits on the harmful to human health emission nitrogen dioxide in 2010, and will still be over the limits a decade later.”
Contrary to this a spokeswoman for Mr Johnson said: “Since the mayor took office emission of oxides of nitrogen are down by an estimated 20%”
“That is because of an ambitious package of London-wide measures including building Europe’s largest fleet of low emission hybrid buses, retiring the oldest taxis and introducing tighter emission standards for lorries and vans.”
She concluded by saying: “Clearly there is still more to do, which is why the mayor has just allocated the first £5.4m of his new £20m Air Quality Fund to help boroughs tackle local air pollution.”
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