Sales of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be outlawed in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of efforts to tackle air pollution.
The U.K. environment secretary Michael Gove said on Wednesday that “there is no alternative to embracing new technology.”
More than 2.6 million new vehicles were registered in the U.K. for the last year, making it the second biggest market in Europe after Germany.
Meeting the deadline of 2040 will be a hard mission. Although the demand for electric and fuel cell cars, as well as plug-in hybrids in Britain, grew up to 40% in 2015, they only accounted for less than 3% of the market.
The expected move to ban new cars and trucks that rely on fossil fuels by 2040 comes after similar plans were announced in France this month and as part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan. The British authorities warned that the commitment, which will also take in hybrid cars, was needed because of the negative impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health.
The government believes air pollution is linked to around 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK and costs up to £2.7 billion in lost productivity.
A Government spokesman admitted that poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and the authorities are determined to “take strong action in the shortest time possible.”
