London has introduced the world's first Ultra-Low Emission Zone in a bid to fight air pollution.
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00:00We had to make some tough decisions and I'm really proud that London is a city that is
00:17taking some serious measures.
00:47We have a
01:15public health emergency in London and actually in all major cities across the country in
01:20London we have thousands of premature deaths each year directly caused by the poor quality
01:25air.
01:26Across the country it's 40,000 premature deaths.
01:29In London we have children who have stunted underdeveloped lungs directly caused by the
01:33poor quality air.
01:35We have every day full Londoners hospitalised because of the poor quality air but also adults
01:40with a whole host of health issues from asthma to dementia to cancer and it can't be right
01:45that it's getting worse rather than better so this is part of a package of measures to
01:50fix the toxic air in our city.
02:02I have a lot of sympathy with drivers of vehicles that would be affected by this.
02:07People were incentivised by government tax incentives to opt into diesel as a fuel because
02:12it was more efficient.
02:13But what we now know about its impact on public health and the health of children's lungs,
02:19growing developing lungs, is that it's significant and it's bad.
02:24So we now need to change things again.
02:41We hope to see a 45% reduction over the course of the next couple of years and according
02:45to independent experts within six years the air in London will be brought within lawful
02:51limits.