{"id":19143,"date":"2015-09-28T08:02:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T15:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/pretty-paris-dirty-secret-pollution\/"},"modified":"2015-09-28T08:02:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T15:02:22","slug":"pretty-paris-dirty-secret-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/pretty-paris-dirty-secret-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Pretty Paris’ dirty secret: Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014<\/strong> Guidebooks rarely mention it, but Paris is one of the most polluted cities in the rich world. The Eiffel Tower is periodically shrouded in smog, and there\u2019s one key culprit: France\u2019s disproportionately heavy reliance on diesel fuel.<\/p>\n

Critics are increasingly questioning the need for diesel vehicles, especially after last week\u2019s discovery that Volkswagen tricked drivers worldwide into thinking their diesel engines were much cleaner than they really are.<\/p>\n

Paris\u2019 diesel-driven pollution problem is especially embarrassing for a city that\u2019s trying to be environmentally exemplary as it prepares to host crucial U.N. talks in two months on reducing emissions. City authorities banned all traffic from central Paris on Sunday and are trying to gradually forbid diesel altogether, as they try to clean up the capital\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

But a nationwide crackdown on diesel remains taboo. And elsewhere in Europe \u2014 where the majority of new cars run on diesel engines versus just one-seventh worldwide \u2014 few are raising the alarm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must stop lying to the French by inciting them to buy so-called environmentally friendly cars,\u201d Emmanuelle Cosse, head of France\u2019s green party Europe Ecologie-les Verts, said last week. \u201cClean diesel doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association argues that new technologies and tighter regulations mean modern diesel engines are on par with gasoline counterparts. Regarding the VW revelations, the group says, \u201cthere is no evidence that this is an industry-wide issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diesel engines emit about the same or lower levels of carbon dioxide, the gas that causes global warming, as gasoline-fueled engines. The problem with diesel comes down to public health: its engines emit much more nitrogen oxides than do gasoline engines.<\/p>\n

That pollution is linked to asthma, bronchitis and increased risk of heart problems, and the World Health Organization\u2019s France-based cancer agency says diesel fumes can cause lung cancer.<\/p>\n

But European consumers prefer diesel cars because they get better mileage and they\u2019re cheaper to fuel and maintain. In France, that\u2019s because of decades-old tax breaks and regulations that stretch from the factory floor to the gas pump, and that the government is reluctant to lift despite growing evidence of health risks. Most trucks, public buses and municipal vehicles run on diesel, too.<\/p>\n

Dismantling France\u2019s deep and complex dependence on diesel could cost jobs and money in an economy with little maneuvering room. Governments left and right have legislated in favor of diesel since the 1960s, and industry officials fear ending the tax breaks and subsidies would drive consumers away from French cars at a time when the country is struggling to stay globally competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes no sense to abandon diesel,\u201d said Julie Hamez of French consumer group 40 Million Drivers. \u201cWe need to concentrate on what can be done with better technology\u201d to reduce its damage to health and the environment.<\/p>\n

But the Volkswagen scandal has raised new questions about carmakers\u2019 efforts to make less-pollutant engines. Other carmakers have faced similar accusations \u2014 including France\u2019s own Renault, among seven companies fined by U.S. environmental authorities in 1998 for cheating on emissions tests.<\/p>\n

The former head of France\u2019s national air pollution agency Airparif, Jean-Felix Bernard, said he hopes the Volkswagen revelations prompt tougher European pollution rules \u2014 and especially tougher enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that air pollution has a very large cost for global public health,\u201d he said. \u201cThere can be a very large economic cost when big companies are having fun by rigging the figures.\u201d<\/p>\n

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal, trying to be \u201cexemplary\u201d ahead of the U.N. climate change talks in Paris, ordered random checks on 100 French cars to ensure they\u2019re not deceiving emissions monitors.<\/p>\n

France woke up to its diesel problem after Paris was choked with rough pollution spells over the past two years, prompting the city government to briefly restrict car use. At one point, Paris registered higher levels of nitrogen oxides than smoggy Beijing. Paris and its suburbs have few factories left \u2014 meaning a significant source of that pollution was its cars, according to the Airparif monitoring agency.<\/p>\n

French diesel use has fallen slightly but about 70 percent still use diesel, according to a French Senate report. An environment ranking by nonprofit group Soot-Free Cities lists Paris last among 23 European cities on measures including emissions and sustainable transport.<\/p>\n

Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants to \u201ceradicate diesel\u201d by 2020, and is already taking steps in that direction. Next year all big trucks and buses made before 2001 and all cars made before 1997 will be banned from the city.<\/p>\n

And fellow Socialists in the national government do not share her antipathy toward diesel, in part because of concerns that phasing it out would hit the poor hardest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we encouraged diesel for years, when you have millions of families driving on diesel, millions of workers who go to work in their diesel cars, it\u2019s not from one day to the next that you can punish them because they made these choices, and they don\u2019t have money to replace their cars,\u201d Environment Minister Royal said recently.<\/p>\n

She speaks of a possible \u201cadjustment\u201d to the tax breaks for diesel, but so far her plans for reducing reliance on diesel remain voluntary and up to mayors to pursue.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people see their city through new eyes,\u201d Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, said of the no-car day that she plans to hold again next year. \u201cYes, we can function in a way other than cars 24 hours out of 24.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chris den Hond contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 Guidebooks rarely mention it, but Paris is one of the most polluted cities in the rich world. The Eiffel Tower is periodically shrouded in smog, and there\u2019s one key culprit: France\u2019s disproportionately heavy reliance on diesel fuel. Critics are increasingly questioning the need for diesel vehicles, especially after last week\u2019s discovery that Volkswagen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":19144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19143"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}