13 Feb 2008

LONDON (Reuters) - Owners of gas-guzzling cars will have to pay 25 pounds a day to drive them in central London from October, mayor Ken Livingstone said on Tuesday.

 

The decision, following a year of consultations, is part of a package that Livingstone is bringing in to cut London's carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025.

 

"I believe that this ground breaking initiative will have an impact throughout the world with other cities following suit as they step up their efforts to halt the slide towards catastrophic climate change," he told a news conference.

 

Livingstone, who has made the environment a central plank of his tenure, is facing a tough re-election battle in May in which green issues have featured heavily.

 

London, which generates some 7 percent of Britain's climate-warming carbon emissions, is in a vanguard of a group of 40 major cities worldwide pooling their knowledge to play their part in fighting climate change.

 

The city's plan is far more ambitious than legislation going through parliament to cut national emissions of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 60 percent by 2050.

 

The 25 pound daily tax on vehicles in central London's Congestion Charge zone emitting 225 grams of carbon dioxide per km would apply in the same way as the normal 8 pounds daily charge does to all but the cleanest cars.

 

But to force home the environmental point of a congestion scheme that initially had no green goal, the exemption granted to residents in the zone will be removed from drivers of the polluting four-wheel drive and top-end luxury cars.

 

That means that the owner of a gas-guzzler who chooses to drive in the zone every day will end up paying 6,500 pounds a year for the privilege.

 

 

 

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