Down and out in Paris and London

La pollution de l’air

Hello and welcome to our third blog post! This week is slightly different as we are on holiday in Paris, so we thought it would be interesting to see what other cities outside the UK are doing. London and Paris are both large metropolitan cities with their fair share of challenges. How have they done over the past few years with understanding and addressing air quality issues?

According to this article, both cities managed to reduce NO2 and PM concentrations from traffic between 2010 and 2016. It appears that the Euro V standards had an impact on these reductions. However, there are variations, with London seeing a faster reduction in PM10 while seeing increases in roadside PM2.5 (see our last blog post for explanations of these).

Disappearing trick

When we arrived we checked on the AQI link, and were reassured that air quality was good (possibly due to rain). However this photo of the view from Montmatre reminded us of this interesting educational tool to get children discussing “why has the Eiffel Tower disappeared”? This isn’t a David Copperfield illusion where he makes the Statue of Liberty disappear, but rather a more sober reminder of the visible effects of pollution.

Cleaning up the capitals

UK and France have taken slightly different approaches to dealing with vehicle emissions in the capitals. London has had congestion charging since 2003, to limit the overall numbers of vehicles, while Paris introduced Crit’Air, where only vehicles that meet emissions criteria can enter the centre of the city. London has also taken steps since 2008 to deal with pollution from heavy goods vehicles and buses, as has Paris since 2015. Additionally, Paris introduces emergency measures during days of high pollution (this is a recent example). This is an interesting intervention, and a tangible example of measures that can be taken to limit pollution. Other examples, such as making public transport free on high pollution days, are inspiring too.

Air quality’s coming home

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and ULEZ are significant, if not universally loved, measures to improve air quality. But what else can London do to improve air quality? Over the coming months we hope to understand at a local level, the air pollution affecting our community and the things we can do to improve it.