UK government warned to drastically reduce air pollution or face renewed legal action

[Morgen]

[QUOTE]In April the Supreme Court ruled an immediate plan was needed after the UK breached EU limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
The government said it was committed to cleaning the air and had delivered its plans accordingly.
But environmental law firm ClientEarth, which took the original case, said the plans still do not protect health.
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The firm has given ministers 10 days to respond.
Around 40,000 people are estimated to die prematurely every year in the UK because of bad air quality.
Nitrogen pollution from diesel vehicles is creating much of the problem - and this has been exacerbated by the scandal over testing which has made cars appear cleaner than they really are.
Ministers have responded by creating special anti-pollution zones in Leeds, Southampton, Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby and London.
They say they have also committed £2bn from 2011 to improving standards of buses, dustbin lorries and fire engines.
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But they still do not envisage that the air will meet EU health standards around the UK until 2020 - and 2025 in London because of the delay in getting older dirtier vehicles off the roads altogether.
Alan Andrews from ClientEarth told the BBC the government had itself to blame for failing to act sooner against diesel cars.
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"Then they lobbied the EU to water down new regulations which will require new diesel cars to meet emissions limits on the road. As a consequence, new diesel cars will be able to emit double the emission limit until 2021."
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[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35689427"]Source[/URL]

[Sableye]

How did the US pass emissions standards better than the EU

If you want to get rid of no2 emissions put in urea injectors, that's like the end all solution, ya it's a pain in the ass but it's what you need on car diesels to get them to perform like a gas engine

[Morgen]

[QUOTE=Sableye;49841634]How did the US pass emissions standards better than the EU

If you want to get rid of no2 emissions put in urea injectors, that's like the end all solution, ya it's a pain in the ass but it's what you need on car diesels to get them to perform like a gas engine[/QUOTE]

Well like it said in the OP, the UK government lobbied to water down the EU regulations. Yeah adding urea injectors does work but it's not very common here in the UK. So unless the government forces them to be retroactively added to older cars it's going to take a while for most of the UK's car fleet to have them. My 2013 diesel car doesn't have it, yet I only pay £30 a year road tax. The road tax bands are based entirely on CO2 emissions per KM which diesels output less of. The NO2 emissions aren't even taken into account.