Top UK court forces government to cut air pollution, diesel cars might be banned

"After having a kind of renaissance during the first decade of the 2000s, diesel is now under attack again. The current generation of "clean" diesel vehicles might be much improved over the soot-machines of yore, but they are still a problem, especially when you pack a lot of them close together, as in Europe. Also, the facts as we know them have changed (like the Keynes quote: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"); We now know that diesel is more damaging to our health than we previously thought, with the World Health Organization officially recognizing it as causing cancer, and a recent study showing that it causes 6% of lung cancers in the US and UK.

No wonder then that France is offering people big incentives to swap old diesels for plug-ins and that Paris' mayor is trying to ban diesels by 2020.

The same thing might happen in the UK. Pollution levels have been over legal limits for nitrogen dioxide (NOx) since 2010 in 16 different cities and regions. The country's highest court has ordered the government to take immediate action to remedy the situation:

In a unanimous ruling, a panel of five judges, headed by the court's president Lord Neuberger, ordered "that the Government must prepare and consult on new air quality plans for submission to the European Commission... no later than December 31 2015". (source)

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32512152

http://www.treehugger.com/cars/top-uk-court-forces-government-cut-air-pollution-diesel-cars-might-be-banned.html

Comment from bandiesel (inhouse) 

The BBC Article features a "Clean-Diesel"-Spin insert, claiming that Diesel has never been as clean as now... claiming that 99% of all particles are filtered now, however this is delusional propaganda since 99% is a mass based reduction and doesn't make any statement about toxicity, number and carcinogenic properties of remaining particles, which still remains 100 times more toxic than regular gasoline-car emissions. The New "Clean-Diesel" Technology is not clean nor safe, also the Soot-Trap Particle Filter emits heavy toxic fumes while "Regeneration". Industry and "Independent Experts" will try to convince you this is the "Best Available Technology" (BAT), well if this is the case, than phase out your harmful product line, that can only survive through fraudulent claims, marketing and junk science usually used by Tobacco companies. PS. this is very important, because Diesel Engine Producers, after successfully wrecking air quality in Europe, are now launching the "Clean Diesel"-Spin in the USA and China.