The ban on the circulation of 380,000 polluting vehicles in the Métropole du Grand Paris (MGP) – the largest low emission zone (ZFE) in France with 7.2 million inhabitants – was postponed Thursday from July to the beginning of 2025, i.e. after the next Olympic Games.
The MGP notes that it is “materially impossible” to introduce it this summer, in “the absence of tangible responses from the State” on the zero-interest loan guarantee and automated penalty control. “Until the government has moved forward, we will not be able to set up our ZFE”hammered the president of the MGP, Patrick Ollier (LR), during the metropolitan council. “A ZFE without sanctions will not work”he added, stressing that the automated sanction control will not be provided by the State “before 1er January 2025 ». “Between the two, there are still the Olympic Games”whose constraints represent “a volcano in our municipalities”, he believes. For their part, the left-wing elected representatives of the MGP preferred a shorter postponement to 1er January 2024.
Fight against fine particle pollution
The Grand Paris ZFE has already introduced a ban on the circulation of unclassified vehicles and Crit’air 5 in July 2019, then Crit’air 4 in June 2021. The ban on the circulation of Crit’Air 3 vignettes, concerning petrol vehicles registered before 1er January 2006 and diesel engines registered before 1er January 2011, had already been postponed for the first time from July 2022 to July 2023. This third stage did not de facto enter into force on 1er July, Mr. Ollier considering himself “legally covered” since “the decision was subject to two conditions which are not met”.
Introduced by the Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) in 2019 then reinforced by the Climate Law of 2021, the ZFEs aim to fight against pollution from fine particles and nitrogen oxides, responsible for respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and at least 40,000 deaths per year, according to Public Health France.
But the government is trying to defuse a highly sensitive subject in an explosive social context. On Monday, he relaxed the rules for agglomerations where the pollution thresholds are not exceeded. Only the metropolises of Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Rouen – where the thresholds are regularly exceeded – will have to continue to tighten the bans.