17 Oct 18
News

Old diesels banned from Berlin streets

A court in Berlin has ordered older diesel vehicles to be banned from parts of the German capital. Diesels with Euro 5 or older emissions standards are no longer allowed on at least 11 road sections suffering from the highest levels of NOx pollution.

The judge also ordered Berlin to examine further bans on 15 km of roads in order to reduce NOx concentrations to the legal limit of 40 mg/m2 on average. He motivated the decision by stating that the Berlin government on its own had not managed to keep pollution levels below the legal threshold. 

Diesel bans have already been imposed in Hamburg and are planned for Frankfurt and Stuttgart. The Berlin decision is at odds with the German federal government’s strategy. It is trying to avoid further diesel bans by asking carmakers to incentivise trade-ins and offer hardware fixes. 

 The Berlin case was initiated by environmental lobbyists DUH, which are seeking similar bans in 27 other cities across Germany and will file suits against six more cities this month. DUH is acting upon a German federal court decision in February, ruling that cities are allowed to ban older diesels. 

The Berlin government now has until the end of March to legislate on the bans, and a further two to three months to implement them. 

Authored by: Frank Jacobs