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Sweden’s Vice Mayor for Transport and Urban Environment Lars Strömgren said Stockholm will ban gas- and diesel-powered cars from parts of the city center beginning in 2025 to improve air quality and reduce noise pollution from traffic.
A 20-block environmental zone that includes some of the priciest real estate in the country is included in the new plan, reported Reuters.
“Nowadays, the air in Stockholm causes babies to have lung conditions and the elderly to die prematurely. It is a completely unacceptable situation,” Strömgren, a member of the Green Party, said in a statement, as Reuters reported.
The Green Party has hopes that the new ban will accelerate the pace at which people trade in their gas-powered cars for electric vehicles (EVs).
“We need to limit the dangerous emissions from petrol and diesel cars, and that’s why we’re introducing a class three environmental zone in one part of the city centre,” Strömgren said, as reported by The Local.
Under the new regulation, EVs will be the most predominant vehicles permitted in the planned class-three environmental zone, but exceptions will be made for larger plug-in hybrid vans, Reuters reported.
“We want to create a better living environment for the people who live and work here,” Strömgren told the state broadcaster, as reported by Bloomberg.
Police vehicles and ambulances are exempt from the new regulation, as well as vehicles with a driver or passenger that has a documented disability, Reuters reported.
Transportation companies have said the city’s focus should be on more investment in electric charging stations to encourage voluntary change.
“Since 2010, we have reduced emissions by 34%. But the Green Party and their colleagues in the city of Stockholm are now in far too much of a hurry,” said the Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises, as reported by Reuters.
Stockholm is the first Swedish city to propose a class-three environmental zone.
The new regulation is more strict than diesel car bans in Athens, Paris and Madrid, Bloomberg reported. Other cities like London have instituted low-emission zones that charge daily fees for gas-powered vehicles entering the city center.
“The environmental zone is being introduced in an area where there are a lot of pedestrians and cyclists, where the air quality needs to improve. It’s also an area of the city centre where we can see high commitment to electrification, where there are key actors who can be a driving force in this transition,” Strömgren said, as reported by The Local. “That’s why this is a good place to start.”
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