Plus ultra*
Going further, faster, higher and stronger
We often say we are not a political blog but measures to counter air pollution have become unexpectedly political over the past few years. The first time Louise remembers hearing the word ULEZ (ultra low emission zone, but its acronym now stands in common parlance) was during an assembly she gave on air pollution to a group of primary school children during the introduction of their School Street in 2019. After her fun quiz, some local police officers presented to the children uttering ULEZ repeatedly, to the bemusement of the smaller people in the hall.
It was Boris Johnson, previous Mayor of London, who introduced plans for the ULEZ but Sadiq Khan who implemented it in 2019. So far so reasonable. But when he announced plans to expand it, the issue suddenly took on a level of controversy that could not have been predicted. The argument was over whether outer London boroughs needed the reduce the most polluting vehicles. After legal challenges it came into force last August. The zone measures 1,500 square kilometres and covers nine million people.
Grand jury
The jury is no longer out on the evidence of impact. Emissions in outer London of nitrogen oxides are 7-13% lower depending on vehicle type; and of fine particulate matter are 20% lower than without the expanded ULEZ. This translates to 4.4% lower nitrogen dioxide levels at the roadside. This can only be beneficial to health. The full report is here.
From our perspective, the measures could and should go further. We still suffer from high levels of pollutants, notably nitrogen dioxide. Our local Brixton monitoring node registered over five daily breaches of NO2 daily limits within the first ten days of January. And even through the summer, we continue to breach that limit more often than not.
Meanwhile across the channel, some typical London-Paris rivalry is hotting up. Paris’ mayor Hildalgo has also had some wins on the air quality front. We posted about some of Paris’ challenges in one of our early posts, but since then, measures have come through to limit SUVs and new cycle lanes have been built. Today she was at the forefront of a launch of a global Mayors’ campaign on clean air. ‘It’s in the Air’ will promote policies that improve air quality such as clean air zones.
However, concerns have been raised about the levels of pollution that athletes at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics are likely to suffer. Our article tomorrow will look into that in more depth - be sure to check our latest posts!
*Meaning further beyond. We hope you get our drift here - going beyond the ultra of the ULEZ. It’s a reversal of non plus ultra meaning there is nothing beyond the known world.