Low emission zones and emission standards: A look ahead to 2023

There are currently over 600 environmental zones in thirteen different countries - 72 of them in Germany alone - in Europe. We can expect more zones or new and stricter regulations to be added every year to possibly reduce the ecological footprint of the transport sector. In the coming year, cities and municipalities will continue to follow this path and tighten controls on emissions from internal combustion vehicles - as well as vehicles with alternative modes of propulsion. 

As far as the low emission zone and the entry rule are concerned, changes are being implemented especially in France and Spain. While the tightening of regulations for the Paris Low Emission Zone is postponed until July 2023, access in many other French zones is to be further restricted already in the spring. In Montpellier, every car will need a sticker 4 to drive within the low emission zone from January. The 3 sticker will only allow lorries, minibuses and coaches to enter the zone. The 4 sticker, on the other hand, will be banned in Nice for trucks and buses - and the 5 sticker for vans and cars - a traffic restriction which, according to the authorities, will at least initially spare two- and three-wheelers. Similarly - i.e. with the exclusion of two-, three- and four-wheelers - vehicles with stickers 4 and 5 will also no longer be allowed in Reims from January. In contrast to what is planned for the city of Rouen. There, the ban on vehicles with sticker class 3, which will apply from January, will be extended to motorised two-three and four-wheelers from 1 September 2023. In Strasbourg, all vehicles in pollutant group 4 will even be banned from the environmental zone from next year. The environmental zone regulations in Toulouse, where up to now only trucks and vans were affected by the driving ban for pollutant groups 4 and 5, will also be tightened. Instead, these regulations will apply to all vehicle classes from January. The biggest changes, however, will be in the cities of Grenoble and Lyon. For there will be room for two zones each in the course of the year. No longer will only the traffic of trucks and vans be regulated in Grenoble from next July. An additional low emission zone, smaller than the current one, will prohibit the access of cars without a sticker 4. A second larger environmental zone will also be created in the city of Lyon: On 1 September, it should be ready.

A decision in favour of clean air was also made in Spain this year. All cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must set up a so-called "Zona de Bajas Emisiones". That is a total of 149 Spanish cities that are affected by the measure and are supposed to continue planning low emission zones next year. However, the majority of them have made proposals in the short time available, but nothing has been decided yet. In contrast, the implementation of the plan in some municipalities in the immediate vicinity of the cities of Barcelona and Madrid is comparatively advanced. There, it is very likely that there will be a zone in January that is oriented towards the restrictions of the two metropolises. This concerns, for example, the municipalities of San Cugat de Valles, Alcobendas and San Joan Despi. Larger cities such as Ciudad Real and Algeciras have also announced the introduction of an environmental zone. It is therefore to be expected that there will be a veritable flood of new low emission zones in Spain next year. And there will also soon be changes to the already active low emission zones. In Madrid, for example, vehicles without a Spanish sticker will no longer be allowed to drive on the M-30 ring road. Only residents of the low emission zone within the M-30 will be able to drive on the M-30 even if they do not have a sticker - but without gaining access to the rest of the area in this case.  

Other EU countries such as Denmark and Germany are also planning further steps to reduce traffic emissions in the coming year. From 1 July 2023, vans (N1) - first registered before 1 September 2016 - will have to be registered to legally stay in a Danish low emission zone.  

In Munich, Germany, the area of the Low Emission Zone will in turn be enlarged from next February and additional diesel driving bans will be imposed on Euro 4 vehicles.  

Later in the year, from October 2023, a stricter driving ban for Euro 5 will even come into force. In contrast, the introduction of a temporary zone in Belgium, where the establishment of an emission control area for the whole of Wallonia was planned for January, has been postponed until probably spring 2024. In contrast, there is no news from the neighbouring Netherlands about stricter or new environmental zone regulations next year. On the other hand, the date is getting closer and closer when vehicles with combustion engines will be completely banned from the environmental zones: The planned deadline is 1 January 2025, when the following cities will be affected: Almere, Alphen am Rhein, Amersfoort, Apeldoorn, Assen, Deventer,Dordrecht, Ede, Enschede, Gouda, Haarlemmermeer, Heerlen, Hilversum, Hoorn, Nijmegen, Schiedam, Venlo, Zaanstad, Zwolle.  

In the meantime, Poland is also moving forward with the issue of low emission zones. Low emission zones are to be introduced in Warsaw and Krakow in 2024 and 2026. 

New regulations are also coming out of the European Union summit - even if they will not come into force directly from 2023. The main issue is the enactment of the long-discussed next exhaust emission standard, the so-called Euro7, which is to define the emission standards in the future. It will apply to cars and vans from 2025 and to trucks and buses from 2027. According to this, all vehicles - including electric cars or vehicles with fuel cell drive - will be divided into stricter emission classes, with the aim of better reflecting their emission status and consequently having different exhaust gases under control. Not only engine exhaust gases, but also particulate matter and nitrogen oxides from tyre and brake abrasion will be affected by the more comprehensive emissions standard. However, the limits set for them are lower than expected. According to environmental experts, they are even "in some cases lower than those of the Euro 6 emissions standard that has been in force since 2015". Both petrol and diesel engines are to emit a maximum of 60 milligrams of nitrogen oxide per kilometre. This is not a significant reduction in values, but it could lead to an increase in vehicle prices. New cars will cost about 150 euros more for cars and an impressive 2700 euros more for large vehicles as a result of the implementation of the future emission standards.  

An undesirable development for the car market, but above all for potential future car owners - which raises doubts about the efficiency of the measures planned at national and European level. Is there a good chance that the year 2023 will bring the transport world one step closer to a clean future? Or are the new regulations ineffective from an environmental point of view after all and nothing more than bureaucratic complications? In some respects it is obvious that more numerous, larger and more strictly regulated environmental zones would reduce the free movement of polluting vehicles and thus their pollution. Similarly, once Euro 7 comes into force, registered vehicles should meet higher standards and accordingly produce fewer pollutants. At the same time, however, experts, politicians and citizens are asking themselves whether these independently introduced but interlinked measures are sufficient to compensate for the many traffic emissions still being emitted.  

Perhaps even stricter measures should be introduced. Measures that, for example, not only indirectly call for the abandonment of internal combustion engines - the registration of which will also be banned in the EU from 2035 - but also present more socially and ecologically sustainable alternatives. Or, to put it another way: the world of transport would need a 360-degree revolution if the way we imagine mobility is to adapt in the sense of achieving the climate goals. New rules in 2023 and a new emissions standard that finally arrives could be a good start.

In the meantime, don't forget the already active low emission zones in Germany and the rest of Europe. As always, all information is available on our website and in the Green Zones app.