After attempting to impose low-emission zones in France’s main cities by banning the most polluting vehicles from entering them by 2025, city councils are now backtracking. One after the other, cities are postponing the date on which the plan is to be implemented. The reason: the perverse effects of the measure, which hits families of the most modest means the hardest and fuels public resentment against what is perceived as an unenforceable environmental injunction.
A law passed in 2021 provided for the introduction of Low Emission Zones to become mandatory in all urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants by 31 December 2024. These zones are to exclude vehicles deemed to be the most polluting, according to timetables and zoning that may vary from one city to another. The polluting nature of vehicles is indicated at the national level by the affixing of a ‘Crit’air’ sticker, depending on the vehicle’s age, type of engine, and energy used. The most efficient vehicles are given a Crit’air 1 or 2 sticker, and the most polluting, a 3, 4, or 5.
On Tuesday, March 19th, the French ministry for ecological transition announced that several major regional cities, such as Strasbourg and Marseille, would extend the deadlines for evicting the most polluting vehicles indefinitely. Cars classified as Crit’air 3 will therefore be allowed to drive beyond 1 January 2025, contrary to what had been announced. A few months ago, another wave of medium-sized towns benefited from the same measure. From now on, only Paris and Lyon will be subject to the maximum restrictions.
To justify this relaxation, the ministry cited a significant “improvement” in air quality, which would make the restrictive measures less necessary. The pollution indicator—the concentration of nitrogen oxide—recorded in the towns concerned is said to have fallen below the threshold required at the European level. “The good news is not that we are not going to ban. It’s that air quality is improving significantly,” said Minister Christophe Béchu, anxious not to fuel local resentment against the low-emission zones (Zones à Faibles Émissions, or ZFE), which are generally very unpopular.
The government’s about-turn on the subject is deemed not convincing. Environmental associations believe that it is too early, and that air quality has not improved sufficiently for it to be appropriate to lower our guard. “We will pay for this inaction in the long term”, warned Tony Renucci, Director General of the association Respire (Breathe).
Beyond the question of environmental performance, the problem is just as political. The change of course on low-emission zones can be explained by the government’s fear of a revolt by car users, in a spirit similar to that of the Yellow Vests—a grassroots protest movement triggered by high fuel prices, leading to hundreds of thousands of demonstrators blocking roads across the country off and on for over a year. The vast majority of car owners targeted by the ZFE laws are low-income households who bought their car many years ago and cannot afford to change it easily. They see the ZFEs as a punitive environmental policy, imposed from above with no regard for their day-to-day concerns.
For Pascal Riché, a journalist with the centre-left magazine L’Obs, the political intention behind the relaxation is obvious. In his view, these zones are the perfect example of a misunderstood ecology, imposing constraint before initiative: a “machine to produce RN votes,” in his own words. In the run-up to the European elections, Emmanuel Macron’s teams cannot afford to feed the middle-class discontent that is primarily benefiting Marine Le Pen’s and Jordan Bardella’s party.
