Hamburg first German city to ban diesel cars on two roads by 31 May – report

Diesel cars will be banned on two roads in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, by the end of May, the local newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt reports. The city’s environment agency said a first overview of a written explanation by Germany’s administrative court that paved the way for diesel bans in February gave no reason to move away from plans to ban older diesel vehicles on street sections with excessive air pollution levels, the article’s authors, Jens Meyer-Wellmann and Matthias Popien, say. The court’s explanation says that nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution levels must be brought in line with limit values by 2020, whereas Hamburg’s air quality improvement plan aims at achieving the limit values by 2025 only, the article says. “Hamburg needs to do more, and the two imminent driving bans won’t be enough by far,” says Manfred Braasch of NGO Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND). The court also says that bans are not admissible if they lead to excessive pollution levels being transferred elsewhere, which ultimately could call the planned bans into question, the article says.

Read the article in German here.

See CLEW’s diesel bans Q&A for background.