Client Earth taking UK government back to court for 3rd time over inadequate air pollution plans

Date added: 2 June, 2017

Environmental lawyers who have defeated ministers twice, on UK air pollution improvements, are going back to court to try to remove ‘major flaws’ from government’s air quality plans. Environmental lawyers, Client Earth, are taking the government to the high court for a 3rd time. They have inflicted two humiliating defeats on the government over previous plans, which the court ruled did not meet legal requirements. ClientEarth had requested improvements to the latest plan (published on 5th May) from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but were refused, prompting the new court action. James Thornton, chief executive of Client Earth, said: “The law requires the final plan to bring air pollution down to legal levels in the shortest time possible. These flaws seriously jeopardise that timetable. These are plans for more plans, what we need are plans for action.” Client Earth says the most effective way to reduce NO2 pollution is by discouraging polluting vehicles from entering cities and towns. However, the DEFRA consultation states that charging zones should only be the option of last resort, after measures such as removing speed bumps and encouraging cycling have been tried. However, those measures would have insufficient effect. Government is reluctant to penalise drivers of diesel vehicles, who bought them in good faith.
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ClientEarth challenges UK government’s air pollution consultation

31 May 2017

ClientEarth is taking the UK government back to the High Court in a bid to drastically improve its draft plans to clean up the UK’s illegally high air pollution.

After carefully scrutinising the plans since they were published on May 5th, the environmental law group wrote to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ask for improvements. Defra refused, giving ClientEarth no option but to ask the court how best to fix the problems.

The draft plans were accompanied by a public consultation which ends just days after the general election on June 8th. But the consultation does not include measures which the government’s own technical data shows are the best way to bring down air pollution as soon as possible.

James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth said: “We have been looking at the fine detail of the draft Air Quality Plans published by the government. We want to respond to the government’s consultation, and want others to be able to as well.

“We have found some major flaws. The law requires the final plan to bring air pollution down to legal levels in the shortest time possible. These flaws seriously jeopardise that timetable.

“These are plans for more plans, what we need are plans for action.

“The government’s plans and consultation do not match what its own evidence says needs to happen. If the evidence shows that taking certain measures will be necessary to tackle the public health crisis of polluted air, then the plans and associated consultation needs to make that clear.

“This is essential so that people can have their say and we get the best possible final plans when they are due to be published, as ordered by the court, on July 31.”

ClientEarth has consistently called for incentives to move people away from diesel vehicles towards cleaner forms of transport. The environmental law group said today it was still vitally important for people to let the government know what they thought of the draft plans.

To that end, ClientEarth will launch an online consultation tool tomorrow to help people respond to the government’s current plan.

Thornton added: “We are challenging on two fronts because of the urgency of this public health crisis. We’re asking the High Court to consider the problems with the plans and consultation. That is now in the court’s hands. In the meantime, it is important for as many people as possible to tell Defra that the plans don’t make sense and won’t tackle illegal air quality in our towns and cities.”

UK government sued for third time over illegal air pollution from diesels

Environmental lawyers who have defeated ministers twice return to court in a bid to remove ‘major flaws’ from air quality plans

Environmental lawyers are taking the government to the high court for a third time in a bid to remove “major flaws” from minister’s plans to tackle the UK’s illegal levels of air pollution.

ClientEarth has inflicted two humiliating defeats on the government over previous plans, which were ruled not to meet legal requirements. Lawyers from ClientEarth had requested improvements to the latest plan from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but were refused, prompting the new court action.

“These are plans for more plans, what we need are plans for action.”

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), emitted mostly by diesel vehicles, have been above legal limits in almost 90% of urban areas in the UK since 2010. The toxic fumes are estimated to cause 23,500 early deaths a year and the problem was declared a public health emergency by a cross-party committee of MPs in April 2016.

“We have been looking at the fine detail of the draft air quality plans published by the government,” said James Thornton, chief executive of ClientEarth. “We have found some major flaws. The law requires the final plan to bring air pollution down to legal levels in the shortest time possible. These flaws seriously jeopardise that timetable. These are plans for more plans, what we need are plans for action.”

The government’s latest proposals were published on 5 May and were widely condemned, with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, calling them “woefully inadequate”.

ClientEarth’s lawyers argue that technical documents published show that the most effective way to reduce toxic air is by discouraging polluting vehicles from entering cities and towns. However, the consultation published by the government states that charging zones should only be the option of last resort, after all other measures such as removing speed bumps and encouraging cycling have been tried.

Lawyers also say that while the court ordered the government to produce a new plan, it produced only a consultation for a plan. Defra declined to comment during ongoing legal proceedings.

Conservative ministers are reluctant to implement charges on diesel drivers who were given tax breaks to buy diesel cars, which have lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Regulations were supposed to limit NO2 emissions but cheating and the exploitation of loopholes by car manufacturers led to vehicles that emitted far more pollution on the road than in lab tests. Such cars are still on sale, including Renault and Nissan models that emit 15 times more NO2 on the road than in the lab test.

ClientEarth’s legal action will be considered by the court, which will decide whether a hearing will be granted. The judge in the most recent case, Justice Garnham, was critical of the government: “The continued failure of the government to comply with directives and regulations constitutes a significant threat to public health.”

Proposals put forward within government for a previous plan did include 16 new clean air zones, which would have charged drivers of polluting vehicles to enter urban areas. But court documents revealed that the Treasury, then run by George Osborne, had blocked these proposals due to concern about the political impact.

The global human health impact of the diesel emissions scandal was revealed earlier in May by new research showing a minimum of 38,000 people a year die early due to the failure of diesel vehicles to meet official limits in real driving conditions.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/31/uk-government-sued-for-third-time-over-illegal-air-pollution-from-diesels?CMP=share_btn_tw
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Extremely polluting Nissan and Renault diesel cars still on sale, data reveals

Cars that emit up to 18 times the official NOx limit in real-world conditions are still being sold, 20 months after the emissions scandal broke and amid an ongoing air pollution crisis

By  (Environment editor, Guardian)

In real world conditions, the Nissan Qashqai produces 18 times more nitrogen oxides than the official lab-based test allows under EU directives, while Nissan’s Juke pumps out 16 times more NOx pollution than the limit, according to data from vehicle testing company Emissions Analytics seen by the Guardian.

Further data reveals Renault’s Mégane and Captur models both produce 16 times more NOx when on the road. Overall, the data shows that 80% of new diesels on the market in the last nine months fail to meet the official limit when on the road.

The vehicles pass legal tests, which are currently lab-based. But when driven in real conditions their emissions control systems are often switched down or off, to save money or servicing costs, often resulting in very high levels of toxic fumes.

This has led to illegally high levels of NOx in most urban parts of the UK and, according to a parliamentary report a year ago, a “public health emergency”. The government has been twice defeated in the courts over the adequacy of its response but its latest plan was dismissed as “weak” and “woefully inadequate”.

Ministers from the 28 EU states are meeting on Monday to agree on reforms to the emissions testing system. But Germany, home to several major car makers, is blocking tougher emissions checks, according to T&E.

The continued sale of highly polluting diesel cars is surprising, said Nick Molden, at Emissions Analytics: “The technology to clean up diesel emissions has existed for quite a long time.” Many diesel cars sold in the US have had real emissions under the official EU limit for a decade, he said.

But in Europe, car buyers often face a huge disparity between officially published emissions and actual emissions. “People are just groping in the dark and that has to stop,” said Molden, whose company’s Equa Index website rates more than 330 recent diesel cars.

He said software upgrades from manufacturers would quickly and significantly cut the emissions of many existing diesel cars: “What you can do is turn up the effectiveness of the emissions reduction technology – it’s almost like a volume knob – and that is a software change. If they turn up the volume, you have a clean car.” But apart from cars from VW, which was caught blatantly cheating, few vehicles in Europe have been recalled.

“The inaction in Europe compared to the other side of the Atlantic is shocking,” said Julia Poliscanova at T&E. “These [cars still being sold] will continue to pollute the air for decades to come. No effective action such as recalls or approval withdrawals have taken place on the vast majority of these dirty diesels that continue to pollute urban air unpunished.”

……. and it continues ….

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/26/extremely-polluting-nissan-and-renault-diesel-cars-still-on-sale-data-reveals

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Posted: Friday, June 2nd, 2017. Filed in Air Quality, Recent News.