These are the cities which will ban diesel vehicles by 2025

MANILA: Environmental degradation has become a major concern for most of the countries but, very few have taken some strict actions to control the pollution rate. And here we have a big news from four of the major cities around the globe which have decided to ban the diesel vehicles by 2025. Yes, the Mayors of Athens, Paris, Madrid and Mexico City have recently announced that they are looking to promote the alternate source of energies in their cities and thus, are looking to ban diesel vehicles completely by 2025.

These commitments were made at a biennial meeting of city leaders in Mexico with an assurance of incentives on the use of alternative vehicles, promoting walking and cycling. This stringent decision is a result of the increasing impact of diesel fumes on air quality. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are around three million deaths every year due to exposure to outdoor air pollution.

According to Beeb, diesel engines contribute to air problems in two ways: -

• By production of particulate matter (PM)
• Through Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)

These fine soot PM penetrate the lungs and contribute to cardiovascular illness and death. NOx is capable of forming ground-level ozone that can create problems for people without even a history of respiratory problems. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) can also lead to inflammation of the lungs and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. And diesel vehicles are the greatest contributors to high levels of CO2 across whole Europe.

For Mexico, along with increasing pollution, increased traffic is also an issue, which can be solved through alternate ways of commutation which include subways and Bus Rapid Transport. In addition to this, investing in cycling infrastructure will also ease down the flow of traffic on roads, when more and more people will choose cycling over fuel guzzling vehicles.

Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris said, “Our city is in a process of implementing a bold plan, we are looking to ban the vehicles which cause maximum pollution from the roads. This will accompany concrete alternative options for the citizens of Paris. Our ambition is clear and we have already started implementing various initiatives to control the pollution. We want to ban diesel from our city, following the model of Tokyo, which has already done the same.”

Not only the government officials of various countries are taking the initiative to control the pollution, even various automakers have realized the need for the future and are already working on hybrid and electric vehicles, which can fulfil the future requirements in an optimal manner. To name some are the Hyundai's IONIQ project, Nikola One semi-truck, and VW e-crafter concept.

We hope such initiatives will be taken in other parts of the world as well and even the Philippines might get to see some sort of restrictions on increasing pollution.

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