{"id":381266,"date":"2025-06-03T18:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T16:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=381266"},"modified":"2025-06-03T18:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T16:12:15","slug":"mps-from-left-and-right-in-france-vote-to-ditch-low-emission-zones-and-bans-on-old-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=381266","title":{"rendered":"MPs from Left and Right in France vote to ditch \u201clow emission zones\u201d and bans on old cars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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ChatGPT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Car and signs picture created with AI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Good news \u2014 there is one less hyper-complex, pointless, car-hate program in the world<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It all flipped so quickly: Only six months ago President Macron was hurling France into a climate changing roadmap<\/a> of the Octopus kind. The people of France were going to have to buy EVs, work from home, swap the filet mignon for tofu, and take fewer flights overseas. Even large screen televisions were going to have to shrink, to save electrons. And some bureaucrats were enthusiastically even dreaming that they would reach into homes and set the thermostats to max out at 19C (66F) in winter and to only cool to 25C (78F) in summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To beat French car owners around the head, the National government legislated car zoning incentives to make life hard for anyone who wanted to drive an old car. The low emission zones started in 2019 and had already spread like a municipal leprosy to every town larger than 150,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these ZFEs (zones \u00e0 faibles \u00e9missions<\/em>), cars were ranked and given a sticker. Crit\u2019Air 0  were the cleanest and Crit\u2019Air 5<\/a> were the most \u201cpolluting\u201d vehicles. Different rules applied to each sticker class in each town with a soul sapping complexity<\/a>. In Paris for example, Crit\u2019Air 3 cars (basically diesel cars older than 2011, and petrol cars before 2006) were banned on weekdays. Fines varied from \u20ac68  to \u20ac750. It was a case of \u2014 if you like your car, you can keep it \u2014 (locked in the garage, right?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But cars older than  1997 were seen as such baby killers they were not allowed to have a Crit\u2019Air Sticker at all, so their drivers would be fined if they were caught on any weekday between 8am and 8pm. Obviously, the bans hurt the poor and the rural workers \u2014 who drove older cars. They also hurt the tradies, and small businesses that used a van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The low emission zones were so unpopular, as the BBC even admits, they \u201cturned into something of a lightning rod for Macron\u2019s supporters\u201d. (The wonder is that it took five years?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week the French National Assembly voted 98 to 51 to scrap the zones entirely. The government had tried to dilute the rules, and save the restrictions to Paris and Lyon, but MP\u2019s were having none of it.  Evidently, many politicians were afraid of word getting back to voters that they didn\u2019t vote down the low emissions zones. (Go, democracy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, these car zones were so awful that even some members on the far left of French politics, joined the centre right to get rid of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, there are hints of life on the far left:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGreen policies should not be imposed on the backs of the working classes\u201d \u2014 Cl\u00e9mence Guett\u00e9. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guett\u00e9 is described in the Wall Street Journal<\/em> as being \u201cto the left of Bernie Sanders\u201d. The Greens and Socialists though, still voted for the car sticker program to change the weather. They probably like having stickers on their cars to tell everyone how smugly clever they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French MPs vote to scrap low-emission zones<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

BBC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A handful of MPs from Macron\u2019s party joined opposition parties from the right and far right in voting 98-51 to scrap the zones, which have gradually been extended across French cities since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was a personal victory for writer Alexandre Jardin who set up a movement called Les #Gueux<\/em> (Beggars), <\/em>arguing that \u201cecology has turned into a sport for the rich\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The low-emission zones began with 15 of France\u2019s most polluted cities in 2019 and by the start of this year had been extended to every urban area with a population of more than 150,000, with a ban on cars registered before 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marine Le Pen condemned the ZFEs as \u201cno-rights zones\u201d during her presidential campaign for National Rally in 2022, and her Communist counterpart warned of a \u201csocial bomb\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The head of the right-wing Republicans in the Assembly, Laurent Wauquiez, talked of \u201cfreeing the French from stifling, punitive ecology\u201d, and on the far left, Cl\u00e9mence Guett\u00e9 said green policies should not be imposed \u201con the backs of the working classes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green Senator Anne Souyris told BFMTV that \u201ckilling [the ZFEs] also means killing hundreds of thousands of people\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation still has to go through the upper house, though it is expected to. And it doesn\u2019t stop tyrant-municipalities from imposing their own small tourist-deterrent zones. But spread the word in case any of our politicians think this idea is not<\/em> radioactively awful. They need to know it\u2019s been tried and failed so we don\u2019t have to repeat the experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also  France, Yes Even France, Rethinks Low-Emissions Zones, <\/a>Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It all flipped so quickly: Only six months ago\u00a0President Macron was hurling France into a climate changing roadmap\u00a0of the Octopus kind. The people of France were going to have to buy EVs, work from home, swap the filet mignon for tofu, and take fewer flights overseas. Even large screen televisions were going to have to shrink, to save electrons. And some bureaucrats were enthusiastically even dreaming that they would reach into homes and set the thermostats to max out at 19C (66F) in winter and to only cool to 25C (78F) in summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":381271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691835559,691819809,691821977,691819118,691835560,691835561,691821582,691826820,691818154,691835562],"class_list":{"0":"post-381266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-car-zoning","9":"tag-climate-targets","10":"tag-electric-vehicles-evs","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-french-national-assembly","13":"tag-gas-powered-vehicles","14":"tag-green-policies","15":"tag-low-emission-zones","16":"tag-net-zero","17":"tag-thermostats","19":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0ChatGPT-Image-3.-Juni-2025-18_11_06.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Bbs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":300846,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=300846","url_meta":{"origin":381266,"position":0},"title":"Families driving to south of France face \u00a3400 cost for tolls and green charges","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Families face paying more than \u00a3400 in tolls and green charges alone when driving to the south of France\u00a0\u2013\u00a0double the cost of flying.","rel":"","context":"In \"low emission zones\"","block_context":{"text":"low emission zones","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=low-emission-zones"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01600px_COLOURBOX28400811.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01600px_COLOURBOX28400811.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01600px_COLOURBOX28400811.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01600px_COLOURBOX28400811.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01600px_COLOURBOX28400811.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":232834,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=232834","url_meta":{"origin":381266,"position":1},"title":"Italy\u2019s Transport Minister Asks EU To Stop ICE Vehicle Ban\u00a0","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Political climate obsession has gone way too far with EV \u201amandates\u2018, as the Italian minister implies. Today\u2019s EVs are too expensive and impractical to be a suitable future for private transport.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00e44fb2b603db90388e240b6f6ebc0470e9c37d5f-1626271775-3fbdbe93-1200x630-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00e44fb2b603db90388e240b6f6ebc0470e9c37d5f-1626271775-3fbdbe93-1200x630-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00e44fb2b603db90388e240b6f6ebc0470e9c37d5f-1626271775-3fbdbe93-1200x630-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00e44fb2b603db90388e240b6f6ebc0470e9c37d5f-1626271775-3fbdbe93-1200x630-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/00e44fb2b603db90388e240b6f6ebc0470e9c37d5f-1626271775-3fbdbe93-1200x630-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":381241,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=381241","url_meta":{"origin":381266,"position":2},"title":"Drive Your Car While You\u00a0Can","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/06\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who thought electric-vehicle mandates and policies designed to force Americans out of their cars\u00a0and into public transit or onto early 18th-century technology (bicycles) are\u00a0intended to protect the environment is either naive or an accomplice in tyranny.\u00a0The\u00a0evidence\u00a0has been helpfully provided by\u00a0a Massachusetts senator who wants to limit how far people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"anti-car warriors\"","block_context":{"text":"anti-car warriors","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=anti-car-warriors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/OIG-10.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/OIG-10.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/OIG-10.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/OIG-10.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":391965,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391965","url_meta":{"origin":381266,"position":3},"title":"WINNING \u2014 EPA to end \u201cendangerment finding\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"31\/07\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"CFACT\u2019s Marc Morano said, \u201cby removing the CO2 endangerment finding from our lives, it removes the basis for all of the climate nonsense that we\u2019ve had to endure for the last several decades. 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The\u00a0Mail\u00a0has more.","rel":"","context":"In \"Glasgow\"","block_context":{"text":"Glasgow","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=glasgow"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00_PDP_SDR_160919_fumes_005JPG.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00_PDP_SDR_160919_fumes_005JPG.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00_PDP_SDR_160919_fumes_005JPG.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00_PDP_SDR_160919_fumes_005JPG.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00_PDP_SDR_160919_fumes_005JPG.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=381266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381272,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381266\/revisions\/381272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/381271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}