ULEZ growth: Boris Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio conflict over London’s local weather coverage

In 2023, the U.Ok. capital is ready to increase its Extremely-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) to cowl all the metropolis’s boroughs, that means round 200,000 Londoners will face a each day cost of £12.50 after they drive as a result of their automobiles don’t meet sure emissions requirements.

The price will apply to individuals who stay contained in the ULEZ, however supply vehicles, buses and another automobiles are exempt.  

Transport for London (TfL), the physique that oversees the capital’s public transport, has mentioned the growth will go forward as a result of poor air high quality “is impacting the well being of Londoners, and it’s primarily attributable to polluting automobiles.”

Backing from DiCaprio

In a Fb publish on Wednesday, Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio mentioned Khan’s choice to increase the ULEZ meant 5 million extra individuals can be “respiratory cleaner air,” arguing that it might “assist to construct a greater, greener, fairer London for everybody.”

“That is the form of large-scale, decisive motion we have to halve emissions this decade, coupled with the implementation of nature-based options,” he mentioned.

DiCaprio has lengthy been a local weather activist, sitting on the board of a number of environmental safety organizations and supporting greater than 35 conservation initiatives by his personal basis.

Representatives for Khan, Johnson and DiCaprio weren’t obtainable for remark when contacted by Fortune.

“Raid on drivers’ wallets”

Regardless of being behind the launch of the ULEZ throughout his personal tenure as London Mayor, Johnson—who was ousted as Prime Minister earlier this yr after being mired in scandals—was one in every of a number of lawmakers in Britain’s Conservative occasion who wrote to The Telegraph newspaper to criticize what they referred to as the “smash and seize raid on drivers.”

“The ULEZ was by no means meant to use to outer London,” they mentioned. “This can be a smash-and-grab raid on drivers’ wallets that has nothing to do with air high quality and every thing to do with Khan’s mismanagement of [Transport for London’s] funds. And it comes on the worst potential time for family earnings.”

TfL and the growth of the ULEZ is overseen by Khan, who represents the Conservatives’ opposition Labour Occasion.

The plans have had a conflicted response from the general public, with an October YouGov ballot of 1,245 London adults discovering that 51% of individuals residing within the metropolis supported the ULEZ being expanded, and a later survey discovering half opposed it. A session on the growth additionally reportedly uncovered a majority of individuals have been in opposition to it.

Regardless of the resistance to the larger ULEZ, Khan has dedicated to transferring forward with the growth.

“I’ve been fairly clear: this was a session not a referendum,” he informed London’s Night Customary newspaper final week.

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