The mayors of Paris, Mexico City, Madrid, and Athens pledged yesterday to remove all diesel vehicles from their streets by 2025. This may be the beginning of the end for oil burners.
The C40 Mayor’s Summit in Mexico City is a biennial gathering of city officials from around the world aimed to address climate change. C40, a network of city officials against climate change, hosted the Mayor’s summit this week, and made a big announcement yesterday, saying:
Diesel vehicles will be removed from Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens by 2025, as part of unprecedented effort by mayors to improve the quality of air for their citizens.
This move comes on the heels of Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal, as well as multiple other accusations of diesel vehicles failing to meet emissions standards, ultimately proving that the world’s trust in diesel engines has been thoroughly shaken.
In addition to the ban on diesel vehicles, the four cities will push for alternative fuel solutions, and develop walking and cycling infrastructure— all measures meant to reduce the three million deaths the World Health Organization says result each year from poor air quality.
Anne Hildago, the Mayor of Paris, went on to call on car and bus manufacturers to stop making diesels altogether. But Giorgos Kaminis, the Mayor of Athens, went to an extreme, saying that his goal was “to ultimately remove all cars from the center of Athens in the years to come,” according to C40.
This isn’t the first time a city has banned cars, but these bans against diesels in particular—especially in major cities chock-full of diesel-powered cars— show the severe wake VW’s diesel scandal has had on the world’s faith in the oil-burners, with C4 strongly urging automakers to stop building the powertrains all together.
This decision could be a death knell for diesel cars, especially if other major cities follow suit.