London air pollution blamed on UK government tax breaks and subsidies geared to reduce CO2-BBC

.
3/6/13, "UK in court on air pollution levels," BBC, Roger Harrabin

"The government is facing a case in the UK Supreme Court later over its failure to cut air pollution in line with legal limits....Londoners will have to wait until 2025 for pollution to enter legal limits....

The government says the laws are unrealistically strict. The BBC understands that it also believes the European Commission is partly to blame because it did not set proper limits on pollution from diesel exhausts in the first place. The High Court and later the Court of Appeal refused to take action on the issue, ruling that enforcement was a matter for the European Commission.

The government says it has tried to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide through  

tax breaks and subsidies for low emission vehicles. 

It has invested £75m to support  

green bus technologies and £560m for local  
sustainable transport and given around £3m in  
grants to local authorities every year since 2010 to help them tackle pollution on a local level.

However, the government's drive to reduce CO2 emissions blamed for changing the climate has partly contributed to the problem, by encouraging drivers to turn to diesel vehicles." (item at end of article)


.