Petrol-powered cars are to be banned from Paris by 2030 according to an announcement by City Hall on Thursday. The new measure adds to previously announced plans to take diesel cars off Parisian streets by 2024. With the news that all internal combustion engine vehicles will be now be banned in the City of Light by 2030, Paris streaks ahead of France’s national target set by President Emmanuel Macron that the sale of fossil fuel-powered cars will be halted nationwide by 2040.
“We are trying to anticipate this evolution, which is quite feasible. A number of car manufacturers have announced the end of the diesel and are turning resolutely towards electric engines,” said Christophe Najdovski, Deputy Mayor of Paris with responsibility for transport.
“The transport sector has some of the highest emissions in terms of greenhouse gases and in the framework of the development of the climate plan, we are planning an exit from combustion engine vehicles,” he told France Info TV.
Under its COP21 CO2 reduction plan, Paris has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. More than 60 percent of Parisians do not own any cars and rely instead on the extensive public transport network as well the city bikes and short-term car rental schemes. Despite this, Paris is occasionally enveloped in a haze of car smog that City Hall combats by banning certain vehicles from entering the city centre. Numerous cities and countries around the world have announced similar bans to come into effect over the coming two decades. In July the UK said it would take all diesel and petrol-fuelled cars off the road by 2040, and China the world’s largest car market has signalled that it too will issue a ban, however, the authorities in Beijing stopped short of giving a date. Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and India have also committed to putting bans in place over the coming the years.
