Brussels deputies united in fight for cleaner air

Brussels deputies united in fight for cleaner air

Brussels MPs unanimously adopted, Friday, a draft resolution drawn up at the Greens’ initiative, inviting Brussels governments, but also the country’s entities, to step up speed in the fight against air pollution. A PTB MP and the unique Vlaams Belang MP abstained.

For the Brussels MPs, the establishment of a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) is not enough. The resolution asks the government to speed up its work on the reduction of vehicles running on fossil fuels, and to take concrete measures towards a modal shift: an improved public transport service, and safer, and of better quality footpaths and bicycle lanes.

To do this, the adoption of a new Regional Mobility Plan is urgent. The resolution also suggests encouraging the use of clean heating technology. The grounds for the parliamentary resolution underline the fact that trees can reduce the concentration of fine particles in the city by 60%. The resolution thus demands a specific budget line for a targeted tree plantation to fight air pollution. Local authorities must also be supported as they develop new green spaces.

MPs ask that priority be given to a better network of Brussels air quality monitoring stations, paying particular attention to “canyon streets,” and to the activation of the emergency plan against air pollution. Finally, they want European standards for fine particles to be brought up to the level of those recommended by the World Health Organization, which are health-related and not economic-related as are those currently in force.

Moreover, just as the Flemish Parliament and the House did, end of last October, Brussels Parliament adopted in the same voting configuration the resolution on which, following a year-long preparatory work, all of the kingdom’s parliamentary assemblies agreed, which requests that the EU be asked, by way of the various entities’ governments, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions beyond the already adopted goal of 40% by 2030. The resolution was adopted in view of the climate conference (COP 24) to be held in December in Katowice, Poland.

The Belium Times


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