The Government has been ordered to take severe action on improving UK air quality by the end of this year after the Supreme Court, the final appeal court in UK law, ruled that new air quality plans must be submitted to the European Commission by no later than 31 December 2015.
The plans will need to include drastic action to cut nitrogen dioxide (NO2 – part of the family of nitrogen oxides or NOx) levels, which many experts blame on diesel vehicles.
Last July, the Government’s updated projections found that just five of 43 cities, towns and zones in the UK would be compliant by 2015, 15 by 2020, 38 by 2025 and 40 by 2030. The ones that wouldn’t make it by 2030 were the urban areas of Greater London, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire, and these would be likely to suffer the earliest or most severe measures to cut pollution.
Commentators are already predicting this is likely to include the introduction or extension of low-CO2 zones and congestion charging.
The case was brought by environmental law activist group Client Earth.
