Diesel car ban germany
© APIn a decision that is thought could inspire similar moves across Europe, Germany’s highest administrative court ruled that individual municipalities can ban older diesel cars from their streets in order to bring pollution levels down.
Diesel cars could be banned from German cities within weeks to cut air pollution following a landmark court ruling on Tuesday.

In a decision that is thought could inspire similar moves across Europe, Germany's highest administrative court ruled that individual municipalities can ban older diesel cars from their streets in order to bring pollution levels down.

The ruling sent shares in German carmakers tumbling and caused widespread concern among diesel car owners that their vehicles could lose almost all their second hand value if they are banned from city streets.

Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, said it would impose a ban on some of its most polluted streets "within a few weeks", and other major cities including Düsseldorf and Stuttgart, the home of Mercedes and Porsche, are expected to follow.

Angela Merkel sought to calm public concerns over the ruling. "It's about individual cities where more needs to be done," she said. "It's not really about the whole country or all the car owners in Germany."

Any diesel bans will be watched closely across Europe and could be copied by other countries as they seek to find ways to lower pollution levels.

The UK and Germany are among several countries facing the threat of legal action from the European Commission unless they do more to solve the problem.
Court Leipzig Germany ban diesel cars
© DPAJudges of the Federal Administrative Court, in Leipzig, Germany
Tuesday's court ruling was a victory for German Environmental Aid (DUH), an NGO which sued Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, two of Germany's most polluted cities, in order to force them to implement bans.

"This is a great day for clean air in Germany," Jürgen Resch, the head of the NGO said. "What we're seeing here is a debacle for the government, which sided with the car industry."

Greenpeace also welcomed the decision. "Every city can now defend its citizens' right to clean air," a spokesman said.

But it was greeted with dismay by business groups. "We continue to strongly oppose bans and call on local communities and cities to do everything they can to avoid them," The Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH) said in a statement.

"In a commuter country, we also have to think of those who have a small budget, cannot afford the latest car model and cannot get to work by bicycle," Julia Klöckner, named as agriculture minister by Mrs Merkel a few days ago, said.
EU countries banning fossil fuel vehicles
Under the ruling, cities where air pollution exceeds the official limits will be able to issue their own bans on older diesel cars without authority from the central government.

Certain businesses which rely on diesel vehicles will be granted an exemption. But the court ruled that diesel owners whose vehicles were banned were not entitled to compensation.

At the moment there is no clear definition of which diesel models will be affected, and there were calls on Tuesday for Mrs Merkel's government to introduce a new national "blue badge" to indicate which cars are clean.

There have also been calls for carmakers to be forced to pay the cost of upgrading older vehicles to modern emissions standards.

Shares in Volkswagen fell 2.3 per cent in the immediate aftermath of the ruling. BMW fell 1 per cent and Daimler, the company that makes Mercedes, fell 0.6 per cent.

While some municipalities welcomed the decision, others were not so happy. The case only reached the courts because the regional governments in Stuttgart and Düsseldorf opposed a ban.

In Hamburg, however, officials were in a hurry to implement a ban. "Diesel restrictions in Hamburg will probably be the first nationwide," Jens Kerstan, the head of the city's environment department said. "We can order the signs today and have them in place within a few weeks."