Greenpeace wants the next Brussels government to adopt an ambitious plan to get rid of fossil fuel-consuming cars, the NGO announced on Tuesday.
During a conference in Brussels, Brussels Environment, the environment and energy administration in the Brussels-Capital Region, presented the results of a broad stakeholder consultation on the possibility of banning diesel-consuming vehicles in the Brussels-Capital Region.
Greenpeace was one of the consulted organisations, but wants the Belgian capital’s government to go further and ban fossil fuel-consuming cars in their entirety. “The climate and our health require ambitious action under the next legislature,” said Joeri Thijs, a Greenpeace spokesman.
“The current Brussels government has made a commitment in principle to no longer authorise diesel cars by 2030,” Mr Thijs continued. “But this process needs to be accelerated. Diesel cars must be banned by 2025 at the latest and gasoline or natural gas cars by 2030.”
According to Mr Thijs, public support for such legislation is overwhelming.
“Parents, students and teachers have been protesting for months for healthier air and more climate action. Brussels must assert itself as a pioneering city and take inspiration from what has been decided in Paris, for example. In the French capital, diesel cars will no longer be permitted from 2024, and gasoline cars from 2030.”