SHARE
COPY LINK

PARIS

Paris delays ban on diesel cars

The city of Paris has announced that its ban on diesel and older models of petrol cars, due to come into effect this summer, will be delayed until the start of 2025.

Paris delays ban on diesel cars
Traffic on the Alexandre III bridge in Paris. Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP

Paris has already banned vehicles with a 4 or 5 rating under the Crit’Air scheme – largely older models of diesel vehicles which are the most polluting.

It had planned to expand this category in the summer of 2023 to vehicles with a Crit’Air 3 rating – diesel vehicles made before 2011 and petrol/gasoline vehicles registered before 2006.

However, city authorities have announced that the necessary infrastructure for enforcement is not ready, so they intend to delay the ban until January 1st 2025.

This is the date that a national ban on Crit’Air 3 vehicles will come into effect in all urban areas designated as high-emissions zones or ZFE (zone à faibles émissions). The government has set out a three year-time timetable for gradually restricting the most polluting vehicles from city centres, but had allowed local authorities to accelerate the timetable if they want to.

This is what the city of Paris had intended to do. City authorities blamed a national government delay in plans for automated enforcement of the rules, saying “a low emissions-zone without sanctions does not work”.

Instead, for the next 18 months vehicles with Crit’Air 4 and 5 stickers will remain banned from the city.

The city of Paris also regularly brings in temporary bans on Crit’Air 3 vehicles on days when the level of air pollution spike, usually in the summer.

France’s Crit’Air scheme is being gradually expanded to towns and cities across the country in an attempt to improve the air quality in built-up areas.

READ ALSO Crit’Air: How France’s vehicle emissions stickers work

Every vehicle – including foreign-registered cars – entering a Crit’Air zone must have a sticker displayed in the windscreen showing its Crit’Air rating. The rating ranks vehicles from 0 to 5 based on how polluting they are. 

Driving a vehicle in a Crit’Air zone without a sticker can net you a €68 fine.

Local authorities can then enact restrictions or total bans on certain classifications of vehicles.

If you are visiting France from another country, you will need to order your sticker in advance, and they can only be sent by mail. Full details on how to order can be found here

Authorities in Paris have longer term plans for a car-free zone in the four central arrondissements of the city, and have recently voted in favour of weight-based parking charges that will make it more expensive to park an SUV.

READ ALSO How French cities are getting people out of their cars

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

PARIS

Firefighters protest for Paris Olympics bonus

Several thousand firefighters marched through central Paris on Thursday to demand a bonus for the upcoming Olympic Games in the French capital and threatening to strike.

Firefighters protest for Paris Olympics bonus

Protesters set off smoke bombs and threw large firecrackers on the Place de la Republique, prompting the police to remove several demonstrators.

Nine unions had called for a day of action on Thursday, warning of possible strikes.

The firefighters and personnel from the departmental fire and rescue services (SDIS) demanded more staff, appropriate medical care and a bonus for their involvement in the Games in line with payments offered to police.

ANALYSIS: Will there be strike chaos during the Paris Olympics?

“We demand equal treatment with regards to the Olympic Games bonus. We want to be treated like the police”, CGT union representative Sebastien Delavoux told AFP, saying the police “have obtained bonuses ranging from €1,500 to €1,900.”

Paris’s police préfecture did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the rally.

The French capital, which has not hosted the Games in 100 years, is on a heightened security alert for the Olympics.

The Olympics will run from July 26th to August 11th, followed by the Paralympics from August 28th to September 8th.

SHOW COMMENTS