The ULEZ effect
AT THE time of writing, it looks very likely that the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) to cover most of the area inside the M25 is going ahead, after the Mayor of London won a High Court ruling that makes his plans for the zone free of legal barriers. It’s a controversial scheme, dressed up as promoting air quality, but with as many holes in it as my first XJ40 had in 2004.
But before I get into the whys and wherefores, I feel I should be quite open about my views on environmental issues. We need to sharpen up our act as a species, generate less waste and less pollution and protect the planet that we all profess to love.
Given I’m a total petrolhead, that may seem an odd statement, but it’s true. However, I don’t think the current global direction of travel is the right one, and I’m a fervent believer in keeping machines (be them cars, microwaves or vacuum cleaners) going for as long as possible even if they’re not as efficient as the latest ones – after all, isn’t repairing something the very definition of recycling? Surely we create more waste and pollution through rampant consumerism.
So a scheme that improves the air quality in cities is a good thing, right? Well, it seems not. You see, while I can drive my 3-litre Jaguar X-Type through London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone with impunity, my runabout 70mpg 1.4 TDI Audi A2 is considered filthy and attracts a daily charge or a huge fine. The powers that be would rather I threw it in the bin and took their £2000 incentive to buy a £30,000 electric car, puzzled as to why I can’t magic the other 28 grand out of a hat when we’re in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. The only way we can realistically achieve Westminster’s Net Zero goals by 2035 is to all get ourselves into piles of debt, and I’m not really OK with that.
Aside from the pollution created in generating electricity, there’s the process of building electric cars. I’m not anti-EV by any stretch – from an engineering perspective, some of them truly fascinate me – but I can’t see how mining for Lithium and mass-producing EVs in huge factories is going to do the world much good. There’s a massive environmental hit that goes largely unobserved, as governments around the globe set their sights on the easy target of tailpipe emissions, which are measurable and, to a degree at least, will improve air quality in cities.
I’M A FERVENT BELIEVER IN KEEPING MACHINES GOING FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE
The flip side is that the damage is transferred
