Britain may no longer be reeling from news of Brexit, but while the new PM settles into the altogether less dramatic negotiating process, Europe’s governments seem to be rolling out new, hard line anti-pollution rules. Whether advocates of these new ambitious, draconian regulations have been encouraged by Britain’s plans to leave is unknown, but it seems as though the ‘new Europe’, unloaded of Britain’s oft-used veto powers, seeks to regulate roads more aggressively than ever before. Diesel vehicles, Germany hopes, will be entirely banned by 2030 and by 2050 the hope is to cut emissions by 95%. Incentives will be rolled out by German lawmakers to boost electric car sales, and it’s been suggested by Yahoo News that Norway and Holland will be seeking to ban the sale of polluting cars by 2025. Whether the EU adopts the proposal for the entire bloc is yet to be seen, however traditionally the German Parliament’s proposals often transition into EU law. Meanwhile, one can assume Germany’s heavyweight car manufacturers are rallying to oppose the law, which would hit employment across Germany, due to the decreased workforce required to engineer electric cars.
Meanwhile, the UK treasury recently overturned proposals for diesels to be taxed for entering cities. ‘Political difficulties’ were allegedly threatened if Parliament passed controversial environmental legislation. Instead, increased ‘Clean Air Zones’ such as those in London, and more recently Leeds, have been suggested.