Merkel pledges billion euros to help German cities fight pollution from diesel cars

The campaign to demonise diesel cars – above all other causes of city air pollution – rumbles on, as The Local reports. The conundrum being of course that Germany makes vast sums from sales of diesel cars, trucks, buses etc. As usual climate is wrongly conflated with air quality issues.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday pledged a billion euros to help German cities fight air pollution caused by dirty diesel cars, as a scandal strangling the automobile industry threatened to engulf politicians at the height of the election campaign.

Merkel said she was doubling financial aid to cities from a previously announced €500 million, in a bid to stave off the threat of an all-out ban against diesel vehicles.

The public health threat posed by nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions came to the fore after Germany’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 to fitting millions of cars worldwide with illegal devices to cheat pollution tests.

The scandal has since widened, with other German carmakers under scrutiny over collusion allegations.

With elections looming on September 24th, Merkel and other politicians have a tight-rope to walk between balancing public health safety and securing millions of jobs in the vital automobile sector.

The emissions cheating scandal has also depressed the resale value of diesel cars, and urban driving bans would sharply accelerate the trend – a powerful election issue for millions of drivers.

Following a meeting with 30 mayors whose cities or towns are threatening diesel bans, Merkel said she would stump up the cash to help them develop cleaner transport infrastructure.

“Half of the sum will be at the charge of automobile manufacturers and the other half the federal state,” said Merkel.

The immediate priority is to “prevent driving bans”, stressed Merkel, mindful she has to protect the crucial industrial sector whose global titans like VW, Audi, Mercedes and BMW earn billions of euros in exports and employ between 800,000 and 900,000 people.

While Merkel has often spoken of her long-term vision of a carbon-free economy run by climate friendly green technology, she made clear last week that, when it comes to the diesel issue, “this is 2017”.

Continued here.