That is basically how the EU's clean air policy works. Set targets that are impossible to achieve, then demand money off of countries for breaking impossible air quality level.

They also allowed the euro emission rigged cars to contribute to this and still do as they only have a pass a lab test, not a real world test.

Meanwhile you have India, China and the US etc making small national, or local, targets irrelevant on a world scale while they do as they please.

Optimistic as ever

All reasons why leaving the EU offers opportunities, but with our current government things will only get worse.

Also the targets are not unachievable, and in this instance the law being broken was to move towards the target in the quickest time possible. Our policies did very little.

We can't use what others do as an excuse and we can't sit back and do nothing. Also what the US does has little to do with air quality in London for instance. That is a public health crisis that requires action from local and national government to radically change policies on everything from car emissions to construction to public transport policy. We need a proper cleaner air act and a proper diesel scrappage scheme. Investing in green technology is a no-brainer but no popular in Tory circles as it's contrary to their own personal interests.

While still being the single biggest polluter, they have less than double the EU population and more than 3 times the CO2.

And they still allow plenty of things to happen that we have long since banned in terms of pollution, and they'll report things as they want them to be reported, rather than the facts.

Optimistic as ever

This specific case was about a legal requirement to have policy in place to cut emissions as quickly as possible towards a target, not about achieving a specific target.

We have to be ambitious over this as it's extremely important.

US and China clearly important but the air quality in London is hugely dominated by factors within London.

Congestion charge has changed behaviour. The reality is that this government has limited interest in this vitally important problem, and has proven this by wasting money fighting legal battles that are forcing it to recognise it's not even trying.

Leaving the EU should be an opportunity to do much more in terms of reducing emissions, our impact on the environment and state investment in green tech.

There's little point in leaving the EU if you ignore all the opportunities and actually make things worse. The only opportunities this government is taking are those to make us look stupid, make businesses leave and make ordinary people worse off, while wrecking public services.

I wasn't referring to a specific case (and you didn't refer the details of one), I was saying that inventing a cost or charge fro something doesn't reduce the emissions or congestion, or whatever else, it simply raises revenue.

The congestion charge has not changed behaviour, congestion is worse and if you need to take a vehicle into London you still do, it just costs you an ever increasing amount of money to do so.

That an engine meets a certain requirement for the CC, or T charge, doesn't mean to say it actually emits less emissions than an engine that doesn't in real driving conditions.

There's every point in leaving the EU, nothing we do when we leave will make things worse, and not handing over lots of cash for something out of our control will be one of them. Clean the air if that's the point, don't simply introduce a charge for not achieving it.

Optimistic as ever

That's totally incorrect. Evidence is clear that such schemes all over the world cause changes in behaviour. You're suggesting the congestion charge has had zero impact on volume of vehicles in the congestion zone (in fact you've said numbers have gone up).

Multiple sources report the impact, here is just one:

[Link]

To suggest otherwise ignores fact. Data shows that the only class of vehicle showing increased activity in CC zone and wider central London and delivery vehicles due to rise in e-commerce, something that can be easily tackled by using delivery hubs around London rather than simply doing single drops offs.

Removing laws and targets set by the EU that require reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and improvements in air quality will definitely make things worse and pretending otherwise is wilful ignorance.

To turn a blind eye to the opportunities will make Brexit a failure.

More needs to be done, not less as this government would like.

Here is this government's priority: [Link]

Wasting our money in a bid to avoid tacking the crisis in air quality and pollution.

Pollution in London seems much worse now than I remember when living there. Can feel it in my throat when I visit. Horrible. Maybe it was just as bad and it's just I am not used to it anymore what with all this lovely clean ocean-tinged aromatic air we get blown in here on the coast.

Big chest and massive boobs

[Link]

It is achievable. Not meeting targets at first is no reason for throwing in the towel or whinging. The exact opposite in fact. Unlike Brexit this is easy to do and would in fact be one of the easiest deals in history.

What rubbish. The whole point is that the government is meant to set laws and create the incentives for everyone and set an example. We all need to do more, but the government more than any single person as they have the power to do so. Who's been suggesting the public should do this all by themselves? My point has been in my posts that this will soon become the responsibility of our government and their stance will be to make things worse when they should be tackling the problem.

A gentle reminder/warning

Big chest and massive boobs

[Link]

I believe the criteria for T-charge is based on a car's "Euro" rating. So has to be at least Euro-4, rising to Euro-6 in a few years to avoid the charge. The Euro ratings are also designed to become more stringent over time.

This demonstrates the issue. We could be more bold by having much better UK car ratings and stopping high polluting vehicles from going into urban areas once we leave the EU. The government could though forget about it and allow dangerous vehicles where they like.

There are huge numbers of schools in London in areas with illegally high and dangerous levels of pollution. These also happen to be schools with higher percentages of free school meals and the report was only recently published, having been suppressed by Boris:

[Link]

Serious problem, which requires serious solutions. Outside the EU I think we stand at serious risk of it getting worse, but there is real opportunity to make it better.