2023-09-09 19:26:09
On the first day of the pollution peak, September 6, elected environmentalists from Paris City Hall requested the implementation of differentiated traffic for the Crit’Air 3. THOMAS COEX / AFP
Overwhelmed by the heat, Paris is suffocating and is preparing to suffer, on Sunday September 10, its fifth consecutive day of peak ozone pollution. A completely new situation for the season. However, the Paris Police Prefecture still refuses to activate differentiated traffic. A prerogative of the prefecture, this measure makes it possible to prohibit the circulation of the most polluting vehicles on the basis of the famous Crit’Air sticker in the event of a persistent pollution episode (more than two days).
From Wednesday September 6, on the first day of the pollution peak, the elected environmentalists of Paris City Hall, David Belliard (transport), Anne Souyris (health) and Dan Lert (ecological transition) requested the implementation of differentiated traffic for Crit’Air 3 (around 400,000 vehicles) in Paris and in 77 municipalities within the perimeter of the A86. “The Rugby World Cup comes before health”denounced the elected officials, in a press release released Friday September 8, a few hours before the kickoff of the opening match between France and New Zealand.
“In order not to hinder the Rugby World Cup, the Paris Police Prefecture refuses to reduce trafficdeplores David Belliard. She seems to consider that differentiated traffic, an effective means of quickly reducing pollution, would be too restrictive for the spectators expected at the event. Coupled with free transport, this should not be very restrictive and it would even be economically interesting. »
Read also: In Paris, an unprecedented heat wave causes significant air pollution
The prefecture kicks in
A single information meeting was organized between the prefecture, elected officials and air quality and health experts, Wednesday September 6. During this meeting, the World Cup was indeed invoked by the authorities to explain the non-implementation of differentiated traffic, confirms a participant. Contacted by The worldthe Paris Police Prefecture estimates that the level of pollution, “just above the first exceedance threshold” ozone level (180 micrograms per cubic meter for at least one hour) does not justify triggering it and that “in similar circumstances”the differentiated traffic measures had not “not taken” neither, in June, during the Paris Air Show.
However, the Paris Police Prefecture failed to specify that the ozone pollution episode had only lasted two days, June 15 and 16. “This time, with a persistence of more than two days, we could have expected the prefecture to trigger differentiated traffic,” testifies Karine Léger, the director of Airparif, the organization responsible for monitoring air quality in Ile-de-France. Even if it has only a limited effect on the levels of ozone, the formation of which is complex, it would still have made it possible to lower the levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particles which are also high and in especially for all those who live on the edge of the ring road. » Differentiated traffic had, for example, been activated by the former Paris police chief, Didier Lallement, in June 2019, for similar levels of ozone pollution.
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