Vietnam Green Transition to Hit Residents Hard

Vietnam's plan to bar fuel-guzzling motorbikes from central Hanoi may clear the air of the smog-smothered capital, but riders fear paying a high toll for the capital's green transition.

- 

Hanoi - Vietnam's plan to bar fuel-guzzling motorbikes from central Hanoi may clear the air of the smog-smothered capital, but riders fear paying a high toll for the capital's green transition.

"Of course everyone wants a better environment," said housewife Dang Thuy Hanh, baulking at the 80 million dong (about R54 100) her family would spend replacing their four scooters with electric alternatives.

"But why give us the first burden without any proper preparation?" said the 52-year-old.

Hanoi's scooter traffic is a fixture of the city's urban buzz.

The northern hub of nine million people has nearly seven million two-wheelers, hurtling around at rush hour in a morass of congestion.

Their exhausts splutter emissions regularly spurring the city to the top of worldwide smog rankings in a country where pollution claims at least 70,000 lives a year, according to the World Health Organisation.

The government last weekend announced plans to block fossil-fuelled bikes from Hanoi's 31km² centre by next July.