Should We Ban Petrol And Diesel Cars?

It’s not clear whether the ban will clean up our cities for good or not.

- Dr Stephen Hall

The most eye-catching part of the UK government’s recent air-quality strategy is to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. This has polarised the debate around the sustainability of electric vehicles as the primary means of 21st-Century mobility. The reason behind the government’s strategy is poor air quality, which is thought to be linked to about 40,000 premature deaths a year. The issue is that air quality limits in many UK towns and cities are breached regularly, and environmental campaigners, along with some city mayors, have been pushing for tighter controls on polluting vehicles. But Client Earth, the campaign group leading the call for reform, has described the ban as “not enough”. The group emphasises that clean air zones and sustainable transport infrastructures both work and can be implemented more quickly. Even so, some argue that the target is too soon. The motor industry, however, does not argue that the cars won’t be ready in time. This is unsurprising, given that Tesla already has an all-electric fleet, most manufacturers have at least one hybrid on sale, and Volvo recently committed to phase out all conventional engines by 2019.