London's new vehicle tax against pollution

London has introduced the world's first Ultra-Low Emission Zone in a bid to fight air pollution.

Transcript

00:00We had to make some tough decisions and I'm really proud that London is a city that is

00:17taking some serious measures.

00:47We have a

01:15public health emergency in London and actually in all major cities across the country in

01:20London we have thousands of premature deaths each year directly caused by the poor quality

01:25air.

01:26Across the country it's 40,000 premature deaths.

01:29In London we have children who have stunted underdeveloped lungs directly caused by the

01:33poor quality air.

01:35We have every day full Londoners hospitalised because of the poor quality air but also adults

01:40with a whole host of health issues from asthma to dementia to cancer and it can't be right

01:45that it's getting worse rather than better so this is part of a package of measures to

01:50fix the toxic air in our city.

02:02I have a lot of sympathy with drivers of vehicles that would be affected by this.

02:07People were incentivised by government tax incentives to opt into diesel as a fuel because

02:12it was more efficient.

02:13But what we now know about its impact on public health and the health of children's lungs,

02:19growing developing lungs, is that it's significant and it's bad.

02:24So we now need to change things again.

02:41We hope to see a 45% reduction over the course of the next couple of years and according

02:45to independent experts within six years the air in London will be brought within lawful

02:51limits.