UK government loses latest air pollution case

Environmental lawyers ClientEarth have won the latest battle in legal action against the UK Government over levels of air pollution.

The ruling in the judicial review called the government's plan to tackle air pollution "woefully inadequate".

In the ruling on Wednesday 2 November, Mr Justice Garnham said the 2015 Air Quality Plan (AQP) failed to comply with the Supreme Court judgment and EU directives. It also said the government’s compliance dates were based on over-optimistic modelling of pollution levels.

Ministers must now implement new measures to cut toxic air quickly. Prime Minister Theresa May said: “There is more to do and we will do it.”

The most likely measure to be put in place will be to charge polluting diesel vehicles from clean air zones in urban centres. Nitrogen dioxide has been at illegal levels in 90 per cent of the country’s air quality zones since 2010 and mainly stem from diesel vehicles.

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