REDUCING URBAN AIR POLLUTION More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and the percentage is growing. But
cities are not always pleasant places to live. They are often crowded, with heavy traffic and dirty air.
Vehicles—that is, cars, trucks, and buses—are the biggest contributors to air pollution, which has a
significant impact on both climate change and human health. Air pollution is especially dangerous for
young children. Cities take up only two percent of the world’s land, but with all of those vehicles,
they use 78 percent of the world’s energy and produce 60 percent of its greenhouse gases. These are
the gases that are largely responsible for global warming.
Some cities, especially some cities in Europe, are trying to change this situation. For a long time,
London had the dirtiest air of any major European city, which caused significant health problems for
residents. Experts estimate that between 3,000 and 4,000 people were dying in London every year as
a result of breathing polluted air. So, in 2019, the city took an important step toward cleaning up its air
by pushing its residents to change to cleaner vehicles. A new ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) was set
up in the center of the city. Emissions are the gases that come out of vehicles as a result of burning
fuel. Drivers that enter the ULEZ either (1) prove that their vehicle meets government emission
standards, or (2) if their vehicle’s emissions are too high, they must pay a fee of £12.50 for cars (about
$US17) and £100 (about $US139) for trucks each time they enter the zone. The idea behind this
program is that if people contribute to pollution, they should pay for it.
Government leaders hoped that this new program would convince people to get rid of their old
cars and replace them with electric cars, which don’t produce emissions. They also hoped that many
people would decide to give up their cars and walk, bike, or use public transportation instead. The
goal of the program was to reduce traffic in general in the city’s center, but more specifically to
reduce the number of cars that contribute to pollution. Any reduction in pollution levels would slow
global warming and reduce health risks, especially to children. The 2019 program was limited to the
center of the city, but in 2021, the program expanded to an area that covers most of the city, about 18
times larger than the original zone. This means far more people will be affected by the program, and
not everyone likes the idea.
Some critics maintain that the expanded ULEZ zone is not necessary because drivers were
already changing to cleaner vehicles before the zone was set. Government leaders have responded
that although this is true, the ULEZ has helped speed up this transformation. Others argue that the
ULEZ has a negative impact on people who cannot afford to buy a new low-emission vehicle. The
government expected this argument, so they created a fund of almost £60 million GBP ($US80
million) to help low-income drivers pay for new cleaner cars. Finally, critics have claimed that there
is no proof that such low-emission zones work. It is true that, so far, results in some low-emission zones in other parts of Europe have not been dramatic. However, in the first two years after creating
the ULEZ, London saw a 44 percent reduction in the gas nitrogen dioxide, which is the component of
air pollution that is most dangerous for human health. There was also a significant reduction in the
number of high-emission vehicles driving through the district. On the other side, there are critics who
say the ULEZ doesn’t go far enough. They maintain that the climate crisis is urgent and, in order to
have significant results, the government should demand even lower levels of emissions.
London’s leaders hope that the ULEZ will act as a model for other cities in the United Kingdom
and around the world. In fact, many other cities are already experimenting with different types of
low-emission zones. Some are even trying zero-emission zones, where only vehicles that do not
produce any pollution are permitted to enter. With programs like these, there’s hope that as more and
more of the world’s population moves to cities, these urban spaces will become more pleasant places
to live.