The EU's top court ruled on Thursday that
Germany continually violated upper limits for nitrogen dioxide, a polluting
gas from diesel motors that causes major health problems, over several years.
In the EU, 13 percent of deaths are linked to pollution, said a new report published on Tuesday by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which stressed the current pandemic put environmental health factors in the spotlight.
Germany can jail officials for failing to enforce inner-city bans on polluting vehicles, but only under specific
legislation that respects proportionality, the European Court of Justice ruled Thursday.
Berlin’s Friedrichstraße is set to go car free one Saturday afternoon in December. With the fallout from the diesel scandal continuing and cycle use increasing, could this be a sign of the future for Germany’s urban centres?
Dismayed by the German government’s failure to meet climate protection targets, dairy farmer Heiner Luetke Schwienhorst has filed a lawsuit against Berlin to force it into action.
The Cologne administrative court said Cologne must ban the dirtiest diesels from its centre and other streets from April 2019 to tackle dangerously high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions.
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) is taking Germany to court in a bid to stop potentially harmful nitrates entering the groundwater - substances known to endanger human health.
For decades, plastic straws have been essential props for cocktail makers, smoothie lovers and fast food addicts. But that may be starting to change, thanks largely to vigorous environmental campaigning.
Hamburg will on Thursday become the first German city to ban older diesel vehicles from some highly polluted
stretches of road, as public confidence in the once-loved technology goes up in smoke.
Authorities in Hamburg said
on Wednesday they would ban some diesel vehicles from two major arteries to improve air quality, making the German port city the first to take the long-feared step.
The European Commission said Thursday it is taking Germany, France, the United Kingdom and three other EU countries to court for failing to comply with the bloc's air quality standards.
The city of Hamburg this week put up signs on its streets warning motorists of diesel restricted zones - an indication to residents that they are taking the diesel driving bans seriously.
The Federal Environmental Office (UBA) has said that the nitrogen oxide pollution (NO2) emitted by diesel engines is responsible for thousands of premature deaths every year.
German cities should fight air
pollution by charging drivers tolls according to their vehicle's emissions, rather than slapping general bans on older models, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said Wednesday.
A top German court on Tuesday ruled
that cities can impose diesel driving bans to combat air pollution, a landmark
decision that plunges millions of car owners nationwide into uncertainty.
A top German court on Tuesday ruled
that cities can impose diesel driving bans to combat air pollution, in a landmark decision that could shake up the auto industry and upend transport policies.
Earlier this week Germany made global headlines by announcing plans to trial free public transport in select cities in an effort to fight air pollution. With the initiative still generating lots of discussion, here’s what The Local’s readers had to say about it.
The German government on Wednesday sought to play down plans to introduce free public transport, a day after the radical proposal to fight air pollution made headlines around the world.
"Car nation" Germany has surprised
neighbours with a radical proposal to reduce road traffic by making public transport free, as Berlin scrambles to meet EU air pollution targets and avoid big fines.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday pledged a billion euros to help German cities fight air pollution caused by dirty diesel cars, as a scandal strangling the automobile industry threatened to engulf politicians at the height of the election campaign.
An administrative court ruled on Friday in favour of Stuttgart banning old diesel cars to decrease pollution, much to the dismay of the state's auto industry.
Volkswagen's powerful former chairman Ferdinand Piech, credited with its rise from the brink of bankruptcy to world leader status, has signed a deal to sell most of his stake in the group, its holding company said Monday.
Pollution from 2.6 million Volkswagen cars sold in Germany between 2008 and 2015, manipulated to seem less polluting than they were, will cause 1,200 premature deaths in Europe, a study into the health impacts of the fraud said Friday.
