Low Emission Zones in Benelux?
An interesting seminar has evaluated the pro's and con's to establish a limited emission zone in the Benelux based on challenging examples from across the EU.
Reducing pollution in cities is important and the EU has put forward strict concentration limits for EU cities. Cities can meet these limits using a combination of measures on vehicles, modal change and traffic flow measures. In the Benelux region, there are to date no limited emission zones (LEZ's). A seminar organised by KULEUVEN on 27 March 2012, presented some inspiring European LEZ examples and assessed their benefits and lessons learned in the framework of European air quality objectives. CIVITAS VANGUARD participated at this seminar and presented the CIVITAS Initiative and examples from various CIVITAS cities were mentioned. Science, EU legislation and examples The organisation VITO kicked off the seminar with an introduction to air pollutants and their impacts as the main driver for EU legislation since the '90s. The thematic strategy on air pollution (2005) sets out long-term objectives for 2020, which entail ambitious emission and concentration reduction targets for a range of pollutants defined in several directives. Black carbon was mentioned to probably be one of the most harmful components of PM10 for human health, yet it is not regulated to date. Angelo Martino from the Italian organisation TRT threw light on the experience of Milan with the ECOPASS system. Originally designed as a pollution charge in 2008, it was reconverted to the AreaC project, a congestion charge, in 2011. AreaC started in January 2012 and some positive, albeit provisional, results were presented. Jan Annema from TU Delft in the Netherlands, shared his experience with cost-benefit analyses of Low Emission Zones in the Netherlands. His example of Utrecht showed that a low emission zone for a specific category of vehicles (such as lorries) and in a small area (city centre), appears to be inefficient in economic terms. He underlined the importance of a robust ex-ante evaluation of a policy with a wide range of possible emission factors and more rigid enforcement rules. A court case at the European Court of Justice in 2008 that endorsed the right to clean air for each EU citizen continues to be an important driving force for cities to introduce green zones in Germany, Axel Friedrich explained. Drivers need to buy a coloured emission sticker (green, yellow or red) that indicate the environmental performance of their car and that access to certain zones is based on. VITO and TML, Belgium analysed the possible effects of LEZs in Flemish cities compared to a congestion charge. In general, LEZs would have a considerable impact on the fleet composition whereas a congestion charge tackles more substantively the amount of kilometres, the modal split and the related emissions of CO2 . On a local level major positive impacts from a LEZ can be expected in street canyons. Conclusions The representative from the European Commission underlined the importance of a harmonised approach towards the EU objectives on air quality and climate change. This is in particular a major challenge for the transport sector. Cities have a crucial role in this debate, as they have to re-think their traffic and mobility trends in close cooperation with their citizens. The audience estimated that the introduction of LEZs remains valid because the on-going greening trend of the car fleet is not happening fast enough. LEZ can add value in that regard and the EC is thinking about harmonising some restriction rules from the angle of the single EU market. The acceleration of greening fleets could also be done by differentiated taxes on cars and taking old cars off the road in a more efficient manner. The OECD scrap programmes were mentioned as useful examples. The introduction of an LEZ should not constitute a stand-alone initiative but part of an integrated approach with safety and accessibility measures.
Author: Els van den Broeck
