Wallonia is withdrawing plans to make the entire region a low-emission zone (LEZ) from 2025 after the Walloon parliament voted unanimously to roll back the decree on Friday.
The measure to roll out an LEZ – banning the most polluting vehicles – over the entire region was provided for in a January 2019 decree on the fight against air pollution linked to vehicle traffic. In the more polluted Brussels, where the measure has been rolled out across the region since 2018, air quality has improved significantly.
Initially, a ban in Wallonia would have been imposed on vehicles without Euronorm and Euronorm 1, 2 and 3, affecting around 17,500 vehicles. These would then gradually be joined by a whole range of polluting vehicles, originally even as early as 2023. This was later postponed to 2025.
However, the region has now made a complete U-turn on the measure. The Walloon parliament unanimously adopted the draft decree that would repeal banning the most polluting vehicles from all roads, Belga News Agency reported. This followed a similar vote in a committee on Wednesday.
'Disproportionate and anti-social'
Environment minister Céline Tellier (Ecolo) argued that nitrogen dioxide pollution (NO2) was mainly a problem in cities, meaning a general ban across the territory would have little impact on the concentration of the harmful substance.
Moreover, in rural areas, there are still too few alternatives to the car, causing a great deal of inconvenience here.
"A general low-emission zone would be a disproportionate and anti-social measure to tackle air pollution in cities," Tellier said. "I would like to concentrate our energy and our resources where there is a need." In Flanders too, the LEZs have only been rolled out in the major cities of Antwerp and Ghent.
She has therefore proposed that the Walloon government support the municipalities concerned through a financial scheme, the details of which are still under discussion.
