“What has been decided here are investments for the municipalities,” said Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a leader of the environmentalist Green Party. “They are short term and will not prevent any further bans.”
Credit
Carsten Koall/European Pressphoto Agency
While the German government has been accused of not doing enough, local officials are taking action. Under pressure from citizens, whose health is affected by the heavy emissions, and from European Union regulators, many German cities are considering banning diesel motors altogether.
In Stuttgart, the southern German home to Daimler and Porsche, legislation that would prohibit diesel engines has been making its way through the courts, with one court already upholding such a ban as the only way to address the city’s dirty air.
If the ruling is upheld on appeal, it could lead to additional legislation. Officials in several German cities, including Munich, where BMW is based, have said they were considering diesel bans, describing such measures as the fastest and easiest way to improve air quality.
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In her opening statement on Monday, Ms. Merkel said her government rejected “general driving bans for any kind of motor or type of car, and therefore want to undertake everything possible to prevent them.”
At the same time, she pledged that her government would double the size of a fund announced last month to help communities take steps to reduce urban pollution, bringing its total value to 1 billion euros, or $1.2 billion. Automakers are contributing €250 million of that sum, with the government responsible for the rest.
Other European cities like Madrid and Athens have announced they will enact diesel bans by 2025. Britain and France have also said they will ban the sale of new diesel cars by 2040.
Such moves are making the owners of diesel cars uneasy. The bans lower the resale value of their vehicles, and raise the prospect that even relatively new cars may not be usable to reach urban workplaces. There is also considerable skepticism among owners and environmentalists about whether the upgraded software will actually have a positive impact on air quality.
Already, sales of diesel cars have been affected in Germany: Registration of new diesel cars fell 13.8 percent in August, according to figures released by Germany’s motor vehicle authority.
