The British government recently announced that it would be fast-tracking it's pre-planned phasing out of gas-powered automobiles. British authorities are now saying that the country will have banned gas, diesel, and hybrid vehicles, whose emissions are harmful to the environment, by the end of 2035. This will be five years earlier than its previous timeline.
According to a 2017 report from the New York Times, the British government initially planned to ban such vehicles by 2040 in response to ongoing air pollution problems, which imperil the health and wellbeing of citizens.
The country was joined by dozens of others around the world, which announced thematically similar bans, which had minor differences when it came to the details.
Global transition
According to a report from NBC News, Britain is joined by a myriad of other countries around the world, including Norway, the Netherlands, India, and Germany. Not all of these countries champion the same policy, however; Norway’s effort to phase-out automobiles with high emission levels is widely considered to be the most serious, for instance, whereas India’s goal to switch all vehicles to battery power by 2030 isn’t widely taken seriously.
France has also pledged to ban the sale of fossil-fuel-powered Cars by 2040. Norway’s ambitious plan hopes to ensure all cars emit zero pollutants within the next few years, but the 2025 deadline for the country’s project isn’t binding.
The British government’s latest decision also broadens the scope of the proposed ban; the government is now including hybrid vehicles in the ban for the first time, as climate scientists have argued that even hybrid cars can produce too many emissions to responsibly deal with. Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement during a launch event for a United Nations climate summit, according to the BBC.
British ban
Prime Minister Johnson of the United Kingdom also claimed that the ban on the automobiles would ideally come sooner, if logistically possible, as British scientists warned that the government’s previous commitment to hit zero emissions by 2050 was insufficient for the purposes of mitigating global climate change and its deleterious impact on global ecosystems.
Following the enactment of the ban on the gas-powered automobile, individuals in Britain will only be legally permitted to purchase cars, trucks, and vans, which are electric or run on hydrogen. Reporting from the BBC indicates that the Scottish government will be working to phase out fossil-fuel consuming vehicles, too, though it lacks the legal power to ban them in as straightforward a manner.
