Senate proposes delaying implementation of low-emission zones

How to improve air quality in France without leaving many French people ” on the side of the road “ ? This is the challenge of low emission zones (ZFE), the implementation of which by local elected officials promises to be perilous. In a report presented on Wednesday June 14, the senator Les Républicains des Alpes-Maritimes Philippe Tabarot denounces “failing support from the state”finds “major obstacles”and pleads to postpone for five years, from 2025 to 2030, the binding measures of the law.

The forty-three largest cities in France (with more than 150,000 inhabitants) must create their ZFE by 2025, and gradually exclude the most polluting vehicles. If the air quality does not improve quickly enough, the law provides that vehicles with a Crit’Air 5 sticker (which pollute the most) will be automatically banned in 2023; the Crit’Air 4 in 2024 and the Crit’Air 3 in 2025.

To date, eleven cities have already set up their ZFE, including Paris, Lyon, Toulouse or Grenoble and four to five of them could be affected by the legal restrictions. But, already, this causes many tensions. A online consultation launched as part of the mission, collecting 51,000 testimonies – a record – showed that eight out of ten respondents oppose the deployment of EPZs.

This calendar is “very rushed”deplores Philippe Tabarot. “Foreign examples show that progressiveness is the key to the success of EPZs and an essential guarantee of acceptability”, he believes. The implementation of that of Brussels, for example, will be spread over eighteen years, between 2018 and 2036. He therefore proposes that the deadline for the creation of an EPZ be postponed to 1er January 2030, “and leaving [aux collectivités] the possibility of resorting to more effective and faster alternative solutions, if necessary”.

“Triple punishment”

The senator from Alpes-Maritimes also wants the measures applicable to Crit’Air 3 to be postponed until 2030. In 2021, Crit’Air 3 represented 24% of the car fleet, compared to 6% for Crit’Air 5 and 8% for the Crit’Air 4.

Several agglomerations questioned felt that the current timetable was “impossible to hold”, says Mr. Tabarot. In particular because the support of the State “is not on the agenda”. The latter is slow to inform citizens, as to deploy automated reading of license plates. Its financial support is also insufficient. However, the fight against air pollution is its responsibility. He has already been sentenced by the courts to pay 30 million euros in penalty for not having acted enough, recalls the senator. Air pollution kills some 47,000 people a year.

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