CDMX, Paris, Madrid and Athens Are Quitting Diesel Kamala Kelkar - PBS NewsHour
go to original December 6, 2016

The mayors of Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens have pledged to do their bit to try to clear the air in their respective cities. (Al Jazeera English)

Citing millions of deaths linked to air pollution worldwide every year, four major cities – Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens, Greece – made an agreement to remove diesel vehicles from their streets by 2025.

The cities’ mayors made the announcement during the sixth C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City – an annual meeting with leaders from as many as 90 of the world’s major cities. The four mayors vowed to create incentives for alternatives to diesel, an about-face from years of government encouragement for automakers to advance diesel technology, which can be more efficient than gasoline.

...Some 3.7 million deaths are linked to outdoor air pollution every year, in addition to 4.3 million from indoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization, making it the world’s single largest environmental health risk.

And while the vast majority of them occur in low- and middle-income countries, the WHO estimates that 92 percent of the population lives somewhere that does not meet its standards for healthy air. People who live in cities with high levels of outdoor air pollution have higher rates of heart disease, respiratory problems and lung cancers.

Diesel — the predominant fuel used to ship goods all over the world — presents a difficult trade-off because it can get more mileage and emit less carbon dioxide than gas, but the pollution it produces when it is burned creates more nitrogen oxide.

Such emissions are usually in the form of particulates or black soot and can pollute crops, animals, water resources and human lungs.

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