A judge has told a key northern German regional government to ban diesel cars to meet its NOx emissions limits after legal action from a group of activist lawyers.
North Rhine-Westphalia, which has Düsseldorf as its capital, has been given a year to enact a plan to bring its airborne NOx levels down to the legal limits after being sued by Environmental Action Germany (DUH), a part of the Brussels-based NGO Transport Environment.
The group took to heart German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt’s admission that German councils had the right to ban diesel cars from their roads, and the presiding judge found in its favour, giving Düsseldorf until October 2017 to clean up its act.
The Düsseldorf constitutional court accepted the DUH’s argument that even though nobody was using it, legislation existed to force governments to comply with EU-mandated NOx limit of 40 micrograms in ambient air, plus 18 hourly peak allowances of 200 micrograms.
There is also legislation to force governments and councils to take drastic action when the airborne levels exceed 400 micrograms, which is the EU-mandated Alert Threshold, including keeping children from school and blocking roads.
“We have never had a legal official be so specific about proposing a ban on diesel cars,’ said DUH’s Dorothee Saar.
“This is the first judgement in German legal history that recommends a ban on driving, and this will set the tone for any future judgements on urban air quality.
“We have described the judgement as a slap in the face for the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The state and the city of Düsseldorf can no longer hide behind the inaction of the federal government.”
DUH is pursuing 14 other similar legal cases across Germany, including in Stuttgart, whose air frequently ranks as the most polluted in Europe and is home to Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Borgward.
Clean-air activists are having wins all over Europe lately, with DUH also successful in suing Hessen, while ClientEarth won a landmark 2014 case against the British Government over air quality breaches has ongoing legal challenges in Brussels, the UK and the Czech Republic.