Environmental zone

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An environmental zone (also: low-emission area) is a geographically defined area - mostly in urban agglomerations - in which the operation of motor vehicles that are not labeled as low-emission is prohibited, which is intended to improve the local air quality. There is also the term zero-emission zone (NEZ), in which, for example, only electric vehicles are allowed. Approaches to zero emissions can be found in the Masdar urban development project in the United Arab Emirates.

Europe

The cities and municipalities in eleven countries across Europe have set up or are preparing over 300 environmental zones in order to comply with the applicable limit values ​​for air quality (see also air pollution control plan and the European directives 96/62 / EC, 1999/30 / EC and 2008 / 50 / EG ). Most environmental zones cover part of a city or affect particularly polluted road sections.

According to a study by the European Environment Agency, several emitters are responsible for the pollution. It was found that - taking into account the areas where the limit values ​​are not exceeded - in the EU-wide average house fire has a share of 27% and road traffic has an 11% share of PM 2.5 emissions and, for PM 10 emissions, house fire accounts for 19% and that of road traffic 9% share.

Germany

Legal basis

The legal basis in Germany since 2007 has been the ordinance on the labeling of motor vehicles with a low level of pollution (35th BImSchV) and the road traffic regulations (StVO). According to § 41 StVO a new regulation sign with the number 270.1 (beginning of a traffic ban to reduce harmful air pollution in a zone) has been included in the official traffic sign catalog (VzKat). The previous sign 270 (traffic ban in the event of smog ) has been replaced by the new signs 270.1 and 270.2 , which indicate the beginning and the end of an environmental zone. A driving ban applies here to all motor vehicles, unless certain exceptional criteria are met. The sign 270.1 can be supplemented by an additional sign that exempts vehicles with a correspondingly displayed sticker from the driving ban.

implementation

Sign 270.1 - Start of a traffic ban to reduce harmful air pollution in a zone. I, StVO 2007.svg
Additional sign 1031-51, StVO 2007.svg
Free access for green badges
Sign 270.1 - Start of a traffic ban to reduce harmful air pollution in a zone. I, StVO 2007.svg
Additional sign 1031-50, StVO 2007.svg
Free access for yellow and green stickers
Sign 270.1 - Start of a traffic ban to reduce harmful air pollution in a zone. I, StVO 2007.svg
Additional sign 1031, StVO 2007.svg
Free access for red, yellow and green stickers

So far (April 2017), environmental zones have been introduced in 55 cities and regions in 11 federal states in Germany. The largest environmental zone is in the Ruhr area; it is a contiguous area with shares of 13 cities. The environmental zone of Stuttgart borders in the north and east on the regional environmental zones Ludwigsburg and surroundings and Leonberg / Hemmingen and surroundings, so that a total of 16 neighboring cities and one municipality are in environmental zones. The first environmental zones were created on January 1, 2008 in Berlin , Hanover and Cologne , followed by six Baden-Württemberg cities on March 1, 2008 and Frankfurt am Main and Munich on October 1, 2008 . After the introduction of an environmental zone, the restrictions will gradually be tightened in most regions: for example, the yellow sticker became necessary in the Cologne zone from January 1, 2013, and the green sticker has been required since July 1, 2014.

The largest city without an environmental zone is Hamburg . There are no environmental zones in the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein , Saarland , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg .

see overview of environmental zones in Germany

The vehicles that enter the environmental zones and are not subject to the exemption provisions must have a sticker of the corresponding emission class.

Public discussion

The subject is hotly debated in public, with a number of advocates and opponents. Some of the arguments put forward are also contradictory: While one side accuses the automotive industry of exerting influence on legal regulations in order to boost sales and secure jobs, the automotive industry argued in 2007 that vehicles with higher environmental standards are difficult to sell.

The abolition of the environmental zones is called for by individual local parliamentary groups. In the CDU there are locally different attitudes to this.

It is criticized that limit values ​​for fine dust are mass-related and not substance-specific. Exceeding the fine dust limit values ​​would regularly be due to the long-distance transport of particles. However, there is no limit value for soot particles.

From 2011 it was criticized that the classification of the vehicles was based on the unrealistic New European Driving Cycle ( NEDC ).

Environmental zones, for example, are intended to locally reduce fine dust pollution in places where it is particularly high. The health issues are discussed on the subject of fine dust . According to the German Advisory Council on the Environment , the main cause of pollution with nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in urban areas is still road traffic. Among the local, traffic-related measures, environmental zones have the greatest potential for reducing PM 10 and NO 2 emissions.

For the environmental zone Munich, a study by the Helmholtz Zentrum München based on the PM 10 values ​​from October 2008 to January 2009 found an increase in fine dust pollution at the two traffic-related measuring locations compared to the previous year's values. The authors attribute this to inversion weather conditions with low wind speeds, which occurred almost twice as often in winter 2008/2009 as in the same period of the previous year (300/560 hours over 4 months). By comparison with a measuring station on the outskirts of Munich, which primarily determines the background pollution, a local reduction in fine dust pollution of around 10% was calculated directly at the heavily polluted locations at Stachus and Prinzregentenstraße using appropriate assumptions. Another evaluation of the same Munich measurement data, including by members of the research advisory board of the lobby organization EUGT , criticized the evaluation of this work as flawed and, using a different approach in 2013, came to the conclusion "that no effect of the environmental zone on the dust concentration can be statistically verified."

According to a 2011 report by Joachim Lorenz, the speaker for health and the environment for the city of Munich, the environmental zone has a positive effect on the air quality in the city. However, due to the influences of weather conditions and other interference parameters, a reliable quantification of the effects is not possible.

According to the Berlin Environment Senator Katrin Lompscher , the concentration of fine dust on main roads in her city fell by around 3% and nitrogen dioxide by around 10% compared to the previous year due to the environmental zone. Diesel soot emissions from road traffic have decreased by 28%, nitrogen oxide emissions by 18%, the number of vehicles without a badge for cars by 58% and for commercial vehicles by 29%. Based on the air quality measurement data, a decrease in soot particles caused by traffic by 14% to 22% can be demonstrated. According to the ADAC, the concentration of particulate matter in Berlin decreased by up to 4.7% and increased by up to 5% between 2008 and 2007, depending on the measuring station.

The ADAC claims that environmental zones could not report a significant reduction in fine dust and NO 2 pollution for any city . In some regions, fine dust pollution has even increased. Environmental zones would have entailed high administrative costs for municipalities and existential disadvantages for many motorists. Any tightening would not have any noticeable effects, as only a few cars would have a yellow or red sticker. Because of technical progress , pollution has been decreasing for years even without environmental zones. Targeted promotion of alternative drives , local public transport , green waves and cycling bring significantly more than environmental zones. An investigation by the association in 2009 showed that an improvement in air quality had demonstrably not occurred and was within the scope of the measurement accuracy. He compared the change in the annual mean values ​​from 2007 and 2008 for fine dust (PM 10 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) in cities with an environmental zone with nearby cities without an environmental zone.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Traffic and Infrastructure Systems IVI sees, after an investigation of the Ulm environmental zone on behalf of the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a conflict of objectives between the fine dust pollution, which is the focus of the regulation, and nitrogen oxide emissions. The lowering of the fine dust values ​​would go hand in hand with increasing nitrogen dioxide values. A reduction in nitrogen dioxide values ​​can only be expected with the Euro 6 standard. Other measures, particularly a liquid traffic flow, would have a significantly greater impact on nitrogen dioxide emissions.

Wolf Wegener, former chairman of the ADAC Brandenburg, criticized that driving ban zones would violate existing protection . It is a "cold expropriation of motorists". With the introduction of the first “green” environmental zones in Berlin and Hanover in 2010, vehicles whose type approval was still permitted in 2005 would be excluded.

According to some authors, environmental zones cause considerable economic costs due to the depreciation of non-compliant vehicles and the administrative burden. The total cost of introducing environmental zones in 2009 was estimated by the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen at 12.1 billion euros. The primary costs put the administrative expenses at 10.6 million euros and the badges at 79 million euros. The remaining 11.9 billion euros are so-called secondary costs, including the loss in value of the vehicles that cannot be converted.

From the media coverage, the sales promotion by the automotive industry emerged as an argument for the driving bans.

In 2014, BUND , NABU and Deutsche Umwelthilfe supported the idea of introducing a blue sticker for vehicles with Euro 6 . If implemented, it is estimated that around 60 percent of the cars registered in mid-2014 will drive in environmental zones. The President of the Federal Environment Agency Maria Krautzberger also called for stricter emission limits. These should apply to industrial plants, ships, cars and filter systems for construction machinery. Around a fifth of the fine dust pollution in road traffic comes from construction machinery. The plans to introduce the blue sticker with the establishment of corresponding zones were stopped in August 2016 by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety .

According to the Federal Environment Agency, the environmental zones in Germany have proven their worth.

Legal disputes

The Hanover Administrative Court ruled in 2009 that the driving bans in the Hanover environmental zone are lawful because they "reduce NO2 emissions by 10 to 15% by 2010". Therefore it does not matter that the fine dust pollution from the environmental zone only decreased by less than 1% in 2008. The Lower Saxony Higher Administrative Court and the Federal Administrative Court have confirmed the decision.

In 2014, the Weimar State Administration obliged the city of Erfurt to set up an environmental zone.

With the diesel ruling in 2018, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the environmental zones in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart and established principles for when zonal driving bans are proportionate: For diesel vehicles worse than Euro 5 and petrol and gas vehicles worse than Euro 3 immediately, for diesel vehicles with Euro 5 from September 1, 2019 at the earliest. "Special situations, especially for residents, must be taken into account by means of exception regulations."

In 2018, the Stuttgart Administrative Court imposed a fine of 10,000 euros on the state of Baden-Württemberg because, contrary to the obligation from the diesel ruling, there was no driving ban for Euro 5 diesel vehicles from September 1, 2019.

Effort and impact

For tourists and business travelers, also with cars rented in other European countries, the issue of the environmental badge requires the sending of copies of the vehicle documents. The hotel and restaurant association criticizes the effort and compares it with the toll in Switzerland, for which the vignette can be bought at any petrol station.

In Stuttgart, around 23,000 parking tickets were issued in the first eight years because of an incorrect or missing environmental sticker. In the case of more than 5529 fines, the administrative offense of 80 euros was due to the driver, 3297 drivers could not be identified before the statute of limitations. Over 14,000 are in various procedural states. Since parking tickets - in contrast to other cities - were also given to parked cars, there is a legal gray area for them. The driver who moved the vehicle into the environmental zone would have to be determined. The problem arises that someone may make use of the right to refuse to give evidence .

France

In some cities and regions in France there have been environmental zones since July 1, 2016, the permanently valid ZCR (Zones à Circulation Restreinte) and the weather-dependent ZPA and ZPAd (Zones de Protection de l'Air, - départmentale), which depend on air pollution be called out. When a ZPA is called, the duration, area and permissible environmental vignettes are named. Even foreign vehicle owners may only drive on them with the correct environmental vignette, the Certificat qualité de l'air (Crit'Air).

Italy

In many Italian cities were areas with limited traffic ( Zona a traffico limitato , ZTL set up). In contrast to the German environmental zones, there are bans on two-wheelers with two-stroke engines . The Italian ZTL are not the same as the environmental zones, as they were set up for other reasons (it is not or only marginally about air pollution control), usually only affect certain days or times, often make regulations regardless of the vehicle's emission class and often make numerous exceptions include. Rather, the ZTL are zones with intentionally reduced traffic.

Netherlands

Environmental zones have been set up in numerous cities in the Netherlands. The restrictions usually only apply to trucks. The vehicles are not marked with a sticker, as in Germany, for example, but the pollutant group can be determined from the official vehicle registration number.

In Rotterdam , petrol engines under 3.5 t have had to meet at least the Euro 1 standard since 2013 , diesel vehicles at least Euro 3 . From 2018, compliance with the Euro 4 standard will be mandatory for diesel cars. Since 2015, only diesel vehicles with at least one Euro 3 engine have been allowed to drive in Utrecht . In Amsterdam there has been a minimum requirement of Euro 3 for vehicles with diesel engines since 2016, and Euro 4 from 2018. Then restrictions apply to passenger cars with gasoline engines, taxis, coaches and mopeds. Fines have been imposed since January 1, 2018.

Sweden

Environmental zones have been set up in the cities of Gothenburg , Helsingborg , Lund , Malmö , Mölndal and Stockholm . These provide restrictions only for trucks and buses over 3.5 t.

Denmark

Environmental zones exist in Denmark. These concern vehicles over 3.5 t.

United Kingdom

The British capital London set up an environmental zone for almost all of Greater London with effect from February 4, 2008 , making it the largest such zone in the world. The only exception is the ring-shaped M 25 motorway , which runs through the area with a section on the eastern side. By January 3, 2012, stricter regulations were gradually introduced. However, it does not affect cars and motorbikes, but rather small transport vehicles, buses and trucks. Before one of these vehicles can enter the zone, it must be registered beforehand. If the vehicle does not meet emissions standards, a daily fee is payable. Unregistered vehicles risk a fine.

An environmental zone was set up on July 30, 2008 in the east English city of Norwich . The terms were negotiated between the county capital of Norfolk and the surrounding area. As of April 1, 2010, bus companies based in Norwich will only be allowed to use Euro 3 buses, with all other bus companies 50% of the vehicles must meet the Euro 3 standard if they want to drive into the environmental zone.

Foreign drivers

For drivers from abroad, the same regulations apply with regard to the classification into emission classes and their marking on the vehicle as for local drivers, there are exceptions in Great Britain, the Netherlands, in the environmental zone of the city of Athens and some Italian cities.

literature

  • Josef Cyrys, Jianwei Gu, Jens Soentgen: Analysis of the effectiveness of environmental zones in three German cities: Berlin, Munich and Augsburg. Final report. In: Federal Environment Agency texts. 46/2017, ISSN  1862-4359 ( PDF; 8.1 MB ).

Web links

Wikivoyage: environmental zones  - travel guide
Wiktionary: Umweltzone  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Multilingual overview on the Internet, www.urbanaccessregulations.eu
  2. ↑ European Environment Agency: European Community emission inventory report 1990-2007 under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) . Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg 2009. ISBN 978-92-9213-005-3 . ISSN  1830-8139 . EEA Technical report series: ISSN  1725-2237 . doi: 10.2800 / 12414 , pages 41 and 44.
  3. ↑ Appendix 2 (to § 41 Paragraph 1) - individual explanations of the StVO on regulation signs.
  4. ^ Environmental zone in Frankfurt am Main. In: IHK Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved May 2, 2019 .
  5. ^ Environmental zones in Germany. In: uba.de . Retrieved June 5, 2019 .
  6. ↑ wdr.de: Red badges must stay outside ( memento from January 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), December 27, 2012
  7. ↑ Overview of the Federal Environment Agency , accessed on February 26, 2012.
  8. ^ "Merkel calls for more economical cars" , Tagesspiegel, February 11, 2007.
  9. ↑ The most economical cars are slow-moving . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 29, 2007.
  10. ↑ CDU citizenship group, September 2nd, 2011  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.cdu-bremen.de  
  11. ↑ www.hr-online.de: "Controversy over environmental zone is getting sharper", January 27, 2011 ( Memento of January 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Detlev Möller: How dangerous is fine dust? ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 815 kB), UWSF - Z Umweltchem Ökotox 20 (2) 2008.
  13. ↑ K. Borgeest: “Technical connections for the assessment of legal consequences of the establishment of traffic zones requiring badges”, New Journal for Administrative Law NVwZ, issue 16/2011 of August 30, 2011.
  14. ^ Council of experts for environmental issues: Environmental report 2008. Environmental protection under the sign of climate change (PDF; 5.2 MB), March 2008, Bundestag printed paper 16/9990, pp. 161, 226.
  15. ↑ Josef Cyrys, Anette Peters, H.-Erich Wichmann : Environmental Zone Munich - A First Balance . In: Environmental Medicine in Research and Practice, 14 (3) 2009, pages 127–132. Hüthig Jehle Rehm, Landsberg 2009. Accessed December 23, 2009.
  16. ↑ P. Morfeld, R. Stern, P. Builtjes, DA Groneberg, M. Spallek:Establishment of an environmental zone and its effectiveness on the PM 10 particulate matter concentration - a pilot analysis using Munich as an example(PDF; 5.1 MB) , Zbl Arbeitsmed 63 (2013) 104–115.
  17. ↑ Joachim Lorenz: Feinstaub: When it comes to immission control, everyone has a duty, experience with the environmental zone in Munich (PDF; 2.9 MB), UMID. Environment and people - Information Service, No. 4/2011, p. 23.
  18. ↑ Senate Department for Health, Environment and Consumer Protection Berlin (Ed.): Senator Lompscher: The environmental zone works . Press release of April 15, 2009. Accessed May 27, 2011.
  19. ↑ Martin Lutz, Annette Rauterberg-Wulff: One year of the Berlin environmental zone: impact studies ( memento of January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), as of May 2009 (PDF; 810 kB).
  20. ↑ a b Christian Laberer, Michael Niedermeier: “Effectiveness of environmental zones.” Status: June 2009. Publisher: ADAC e. V., Munich. Page 1–2 ( PDF; 0.1 MB ).
  21. ↑ The environmental zone: an effective means of reducing pollutants?
  22. ↑ Claus Christoph Eicher: The anger on the zone. In: ADAC motorwelt. ADAC-Verlag, Munich, No. 1/2012, ISSN  0007-2842 , page 74.
  23. ↑ Ulm Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ed.): Environmental zones prevent lowering of nitrogen dioxide emissions . Media information No. 183 from October 25, 2011 PDF file. ( Memento from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ↑ auto.de book review: Germany is getting rid of the car . ( Memento of June 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), February 7, 2012.
  25. ↑ "Berliner Morgenpost: Low emission zones cost drivers 12 billion euros" ( Memento from May 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Berliner Morgenpost, January 24, 2009.
  26. ↑ "Die Welt: Low emission zones cost drivers 12 billion euros" Die Welt, January 20, 2009.
  27. ↑ a b http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/katrin-wissmann,10810590,10608528.html
  28. ↑ Christel Blanke: ANNUAL REPORT UMWELTBUNDESAMT - Fine dust from too many pipes , Deutschlandfunk “Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft” from August 19, 2014
  29. ↑ End of the blue sticker - this is what drivers need to know now "Hamburger Abendblatt" from August 10, 2016, accessed on August 10, 2016
  30. ↑ https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/umweltzonen-weiterentwickeln
  31. ^ VG Hannover · Judgment of April 21, 2009 · Az. 4 A 5211/08. April 21, 2009. Retrieved March 24, 2017 .
  32. ^ VG Hannover · Judgment of April 21, 2009 · Az. 4 A 5211/08. April 21, 2009, accessed on March 24, 2017 : "In fact, the fine dust pollution in the defendant's urban area was only reduced by less than 1% in 2008 through the introduction of the environmental zone."
  33. ↑ Lower Saxony OVG, judgment of May 12, 2011 - 12 LC 139/09. May 12, 2011, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Lower Saxony OVG, judgment of May 12, 2011 - 12 LC 143/09. May 12, 2011, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  35. ↑ Decision of July 11, 2012 - BVerwG 3 B 78.11. July 11, 2012, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  36. ↑ Decision of July 11, 2012 - BVerwG 3 B 79.11. July 11, 2012, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Air quality - environmental zone in Erfurt fizzles out ineffectively ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). MDR of August 26, 2014
  38. ↑ Judgment of February 27, 2018 - BVerwG 7 C 26.16. February 27, 2018, accessed January 21, 2019 . Paragraph 35-47.
  39. ↑ Judgment of February 27, 2018 - BVerwG 7 C 30.17. February 27, 2018, accessed January 21, 2019 . Paragraph 38-50.
  40. ↑ Enforcement of an obligation of a municipality to update a clean air plan to enforce a zonal driving ban for certain vehicles within a built-up area (here: Stuttgart). September 21, 2018, accessed January 21, 2019 . Administrative Court Stuttgart, order of September 21, 2019, 13 K 8951/18.
  41. ↑ Andrea Jenewein: Environmental zone in Stuttgart - environmental badge is a nuisance for tourists Stuttgarter Zeitung of December 23, 2016
  42. ↑ The French environmental zones ZCR and ZPA. crit-air.fr, accessed September 7, 2018 .
  43. ^ Certificate Crit'Air. Ministère de la transition écologique et solidaire, archived from the original on September 7, 2018 ; Retrieved September 7, 2018 (French).
  44. ↑ Italy Driving bans in many inner cities in car winners
  45. ↑ http://www.urbanaccessregulations.eu/countries-mainmenu-147/italy-mainmenu-81
  46. ^ Environmental zones in the Netherlands
  47. ↑ Access restrictions in the Netherlands (select country: Netherlands). In: urbanaccessregulations.eu . Retrieved March 29, 2017.
  48. ↑ Amsterdam. In: milieuzones.nl. Retrieved July 16, 2018 (Dutch).
  49. ↑ http://www.meine-auto.info/umwelt Zonen/2091-umweltzonen-in- europa.html
  50. ↑ http://www.urbanaccessregulations.eu/countries-mainmenu-147/sweden-mainmenu-248
  51. ^ Area of ​​the London environmental zone.
  52. ↑ Press release from July 28, 2008 ( Memento from December 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  53. ↑ - ( Memento from September 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )