Agnès Pannier-Runacher calls on “local authorities” to work “with the government to find the best solutions”

The Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher called this Wednesday on franceinfo the “local authorities” to work “with the government to find the best solutions” to implement Low Emission Zones (ELZs) in large conurbations. “It is the local authorities who decide the dates” of the establishment of these EPZs, reminded the Minister. “They rushed at the time of the municipal elections, carrying ecology over the shoulder, without absolutely looking at the implementation framework”lamented the minister.

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Created in 2020 by decree, these zones should ultimately exclude the most polluting vehicles, such as diesel vehicles. Paris and Lyon are the first cities to have joined the system with different implementation schedules. In total, eleven cities are currently concerned before a generalization provided for by law by 2025 in the 43 agglomerations of more than 150,000 inhabitants according to atmospheric readings.

“It hasn’t been worked on for four years and everyone wakes up saying it’s complicated”, defended Agnès Pannier-Runacher, explaining that “the government has enabled more than a million French people to change vehicles and that we continue to support access to electric vehicles”. “Local authorities also have the opportunity to supplement this aid”, she recalled. Finally, “pre-reservations” for electric car rental “at one hundred euros per month” will open “next fall”, said the Minister. As a reminder, the finance law for 2023 has integrated this support for the greening of the vehicle fleet to the tune of 1.3 billion euros.