New lawsuits over diesel emissions in German cities
Environmental Action Germany (DUH) has announced it will expand its legal action over air pollution from diesel cars to several more German cities. In a press release, the environmental organisation said it would sue authorities in the cities of Kiel, Halle, and Hanover for repeatedly exceeding nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution limits. The DUH has called on 42 other cities to prepare for bans on diesel cars that could take effect after a Stuttgart court ruled that such bans, demanded by the DUH, were legally warranted if diesel cars are not retrofitted to reduce NOx emissions by 2018. “If a non-profit environmental organisation has to enforce existing law by taking legal action, what you have is a first-degree institutional and democratic failure,” DUH head Jürgen Resch said.
Read the press release in German here.