Stumble It!
African experience shows how much progress we have made on emissions
Time spent in heavy traffic in Nairobi
was a graphic reminder of how much the air quality in this country
has improved, thanks to improvements in vehicle
emissions.
At every traffic queue (and there are lots of them in Nairobi) the air was thick with the oppressive smell of petrol and diesel emissions. Clouds of smog hung in the air.
A Nairobi traffic jam - the air is thick with fumes.
Looking around the cars and trucks it is obvious that most of them are older vehicles which have been kept on the road, due to the ingenuity of the thriving repair trade.
You see few new cars or new truck on the road - not surprisingly given the driving style. At junctions it is the first person who flinches who gives way as cars inch closer and closer to each other in a test of nerve.
In the UK where a much higher proportion of vehicles are newer, the air feels fit to breath. And, in coming years, things will get better. Emission reduction is continuing to be achieved and - within a planning horizon of 10-20 years many of us will be driving genuinely zero emission cars.
What will governments do then? They will have no environmental reasons for milking the road user.
At every traffic queue (and there are lots of them in Nairobi) the air was thick with the oppressive smell of petrol and diesel emissions. Clouds of smog hung in the air.
A Nairobi traffic jam - the air is thick with fumes.
Looking around the cars and trucks it is obvious that most of them are older vehicles which have been kept on the road, due to the ingenuity of the thriving repair trade.
You see few new cars or new truck on the road - not surprisingly given the driving style. At junctions it is the first person who flinches who gives way as cars inch closer and closer to each other in a test of nerve.
In the UK where a much higher proportion of vehicles are newer, the air feels fit to breath. And, in coming years, things will get better. Emission reduction is continuing to be achieved and - within a planning horizon of 10-20 years many of us will be driving genuinely zero emission cars.
What will governments do then? They will have no environmental reasons for milking the road user.
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