Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East and
vocal air quality campaigner, comments on the ruling of
ClientEarth's case against the Government over its 'feeble' air
quality plan and repeated air pollution failures [1].
Mr Taylor, a member of the European Parliament's
Environment and Transport Committees, said:
"This is a disappointing judgement and one that
seems entirely at odds with the evidence presented - the
Government's feeble air quality plan is wholly inadequate and
argues against the measure it itself admits is one of the most
effective ways of tackling the air quality crisis; charging clean
air zones. The plan needed challenging and this is no victory for
the Government, the judge was clear that if the, currently draft,
report is adopted in its current form it will be open to a legal
challenge."
“It’s a scandal that Conservative Ministers
think wasting time in the courtroom arguing against the need to
take bold and urgent action on the UK’s toxic air quality crisis
is more important that actually taking action. And just how much
taxpayers’ money have they wasted fighting against action rather
than taking it?”
The ruling comes on the 61st anniversary of the
UK's first Clean Air Act. It also comes in the same week a new
report finds increasing levels of air pollution levels reduce the
lifespan of the average human by a decade [2].
“Air pollution is a well-documented public
health emergency. That the Government has continued to display
such a shocking disregard for the UK’s legal and moral obligation
to take action is a sad indictment of the Tories’ irresponsible
and noxious apathy. Toxic air shortens the average person’s life
by a staggering ten years and is linked to the deaths of 40,000
people in Britain every year. The judge has handed this weak and
wobbly administration a lifeline and a golden opportunity to
finally face up to the air quality crisis and ensure its
final plan sets out the effective measures wholly absent
from the current draft. Every week Ministers fail to act,
another 770 lives are needlessly lost.”
The UK's Green MEPs recently commissioned a
report that analysed the impact of the Government draft air
quality proposals and found that, by 2030, the flawed plans could
be linked to the deaths of more than 50,000 people in London
alone [3].
Mr Taylor, who is hosting a public meeting with
ClientEarth on air pollution and the Government's draft plan on
Monday [17 July] in Brighton, continued:
“As Greens, we support an air pollution plan
that would truly tackle this public health emergency – and force
companies to pay their way for the damage they done to people’s
health. We urgently need bold action and the Green MEPs’
‘Polluted Cities’ report sets out just some of the measures we
can and should be putting in place now.”
ENDS
[1] https://twitter.com/zdboren
[2] sciexaminer.com/news/environment/pratik-2799.html
[3] http://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk/publications/pollutedcities/
full report: http://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Green_MEPs_Polluted_Cities_26_May_2017.pdf
[4] Keith will be hosting a
public meeting on air pollution and the Government's air quality
plan with representatives from ClientEarth on Monday 17
July: https://www.facebook.com/events/293165601094571/?acontext=%7B%22action_history%22%3A%22[%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22page%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22page_upcoming_events_card%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A[]%7D]%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D
Note: Keith is the Green MEP
for the South East of England and is one of 50 Greens/EFA MEPs in
the European Parliament. He sits on the Committee on Transport
and Tourism, and the Committee on Environment, Public Health and
Food Safety. He is a member of the European Parliament’s
delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council which works to
forge greater links between MEPs and parliamentarians in
Palestine. Keith is also Vice Chair of the parliament’s
Intergroup on animal welfare and a member of the parliament’s
Intergroup on LGBTI Rights.
