The Anonymous Widower

Mayor Announces Proposals For London-Wide Pollution Charge

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.

These paragraphs explain the changes.

The mayor of London has announced plans to extend the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across the whole of London.

Under the current scheme, drivers of older, more polluting vehicles are being charged to enter London’s north and south-circular orbital roads.

New proposals will see the scheme extend to the edges of London’s boroughs in 2023.

I believe in this, as in many things, that the carrot is more powerful than the stick.

So we need to encourage people to change to electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles.

• There are not enough electric charging points.
• There are not enough hydrogen filling stations.
• Installing and building more might encourage people to go zero-carbon.

But surely, the biggest drop in pollution would come from encouraging large London-based fleets of trucks to go zero-carbon. These would include.

• Refuse trucks.
• Cement trucks.
• Skip trucks.
• Large trucks used to transport aggregates and spoil from building sites.

It is unlikely, that many of these will ever be electric. The batteries would be just too heavy.

But many will go hydrogen or dual fuel, where they can use diesel and hydrogen.

I think there are various measures that would encourage the companies running these trucks to switch to hydrogen.

• Following Birmingham, which has bought a few hydrogen buses and installed an electrolyser to provide their hydrogen fuel, which will be available to all users.
• Once there is a good network of hydrogen stations, this might encourage owners of fleets of trucks to convert to hydrogen.
• Once owners of taxis and Chelsea tractors, see lots of trucks and buses running on hydrogen, would they switch?

If I was the Mayor, I would offer a Mayor’s Prize to the company or borough, that has done most to cut pollution and/or carbon emissions.

Some mayors would enjoy giving out that prize.

March 4, 2022 - Posted by AnonW | Hydrogen, Transport/Travel | Hydrogen-Powered Trucks, London, Sadiq Khan, Taxis, ULEZ