"Car manufacturers have once again prevailed on air pollution"

The Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) environmental protection association has blasted the German environment ministry’s decision to put on hold “blue badge” plans that would facilitate diesel car bans in cities. “Despite 10,400 premature deaths and several hundred thousand illnesses caused by the toxic diesel exhaust nitrogen dioxide, car manufacturers have once again prevailed on the issue of air pollution by dictating its policies to the federal government,” the organisation said, adding that the decision came as no surprise. The Deutsche Umwelthilfe accuses the German government of “systematically preventing the disclosure of the auto manufacturer’s fraudulent activity” since the Volkswagen emissions scandal in the U.S. came to light in September 2015.

Read the Deutsche Umwelthilfe press release in German here.

Find background in the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector.