Ulez expansion to Greater London boundary has driven air pollution down

Evening Standard

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00:00The EULA's ultra-low emission zone was expanded to the Greater London Boundary in August 2023.

00:08But how effective has it been at cleaning up the air and has it also reduced the number of cows on the road?

00:15The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has come to this nursery in Finchley to talk about the results.

00:21We've seen reductions of 50% in nitrogen dioxide in boroughs like Croydon, Bromley, Sutton and Harrow.

00:30PM2.5, another poison, a reduction in outer London of 31%.

00:36What that means across London is nitrogen dioxide reduced by 27%,

00:40NOx, which is a combination of nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide, down by 36%.

00:46So central London, roughly speaking, a 54% reduction in nitrogen dioxide.

00:50Inner London, around 27% and in outer London, 24%.

00:54So it's a good example of us incrementally seeing if it works in central London.

00:59It worked going to inner London and it worked going to outer London.

01:03And the remarks from colleagues across the globe say this is the best example of a policy that has massive transformative effects on air quality.

01:14And they've never seen a policy like it.

01:16So in summary, the expansion of the ULS has reduced nitrogen dioxide levels by 4.8%

01:24and it has also reduced carbon dioxide levels by 1% in outer London.

01:29So it is having an impact on tackling climate change.

01:33But one thing it hasn't done is reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

01:37These have increased, according to the TfL report, from 1.97 million vehicles a day across Greater London to 2.1 million.

01:47Londoners are still breathing air that is too polluted, that is still contributing to real health issues from asthma to wheezing.

01:56In 2023, we know that over 15,000 children under five years old were going to hospital with wheezing issues,

02:05with struggling to breathe. More needs to be done because the air is not clean enough.

02:10But reducing the air pollution through real leadership and real action is obviously very, very good.

02:16And we're so pleased to have had the backbone to do this.

02:20So was it all worth it?

02:22Well, it cost TfL £160 million to expand the ULS across Greater London,

02:28all the new cameras and new infrastructure and signs and so on.

02:32It also resulted in a lot of hostility towards the mayor.

02:36But Sadiq Khan maintains that he's done it for the right reasons and that the ULS has improved the health of all Londoners.

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