Flanders needs to become a huge low-emission zone (LEZ), the Groen (Green) party proposed on Tuesday in the Flemish daily, De Morgen. The Flemish ecologist party wants to ban diesel-powered vehicles by 2030, and gasoline-fuelled ones by 2035.
Flanders has committed to halving the number of vehicles powered by fossil fuels but Groen says that is not ambitious enough. Its plan to transform Flanders into a huge LEZ would ban high-polluting vehicles from entering the region. Such zones already exist in Brussels and Antwerp, and will be inaugurated soon in Ghent and Mechelen.
“City dwellers do not have the exclusive right to pure air,” Flemish parliamentarian Elisabeth Meuleman stressed.
Electric vehicles are not yet accessible to all residents of Flanders, so Groen wants to introduce additional social measures, such as subsidies for people sharing electric cars and allowances for those who wish to give up or adapt their high-polluting vehicles.
“It’s important for everyone to be included in this transition,” says Groen, which has not yet put a figure to the cost of these measures.
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The Brussels Times
