Press release: 29 October 2019

Bristol’s improved clean air plan still comes up short

Bristol City Council’s Cabinet is being asked to approve a new clean air plan to tackle illegal and harmful levels of air pollution in the city. The plan would feature a diesel vehicle ban combined with a clean air zone charge to clean up the city’s dirty air. Below is a statement from Katie Nield, clean air lawyer at ClientEarth.

“Bristol City Council is finally responding to residents’ pollution worries and looking to strengthen its proposals, but while these new plans represent a step in the right direction, they once again stop short of ridding the city of its illegally toxic air with the necessary urgency. It is not right that people in Bristol will have to wait until 2025 to breathe cleaner air when cities across the country are doing it much sooner. Air pollution disproportionally affects the most vulnerable members of our communities including those from poorer households. The Mayor should be protecting them now.

“Following our legal challenge against the UK government, the High Court was clear: air quality plans have to do everything possible to protect people’s health from illegal levels of air pollution. The UK government, the Mayor and the City Council must start putting people’s health first.”

ENDS

About ClientEarth

ClientEarth is a charity that uses the power of the law to protect people and the planet. We are international lawyers finding practical solutions for the world’s biggest environmental challenges. We are fighting climate change, protecting oceans and wildlife, making forest governance stronger, greening energy, making business more responsible and pushing for government transparency. We believe the law is a tool for positive change. From our offices in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin and Beijing, we work on laws throughout their lifetime, from the earliest stages to implementation. And when those laws are broken, we go to court to enforce them.