Archived press release

Friends of the Earth Slams Major's Claim That Britain is "Clean Man of Europe"

12 March 1997

As the Government finally published its Air Quality Strategy today, Friends of the Earth angrily denounced John Major's claim that Britain was now the "Clean Man of Europe" [1].

Charles Secrett, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth said:

"On each of the key questions relating to air quality, the Government has dragged its feet or sat on the fence. John Major's claim that Britain is the "clean man of Europe" is offensive to the memory of the thousands of Britons who have died from air pollution and the millions who are still suffering."

On air quality, the Government has:

• indicated its likely opposition to moves by other European Governments to tighten proposed emissions standards for fuels and new cars
  
• opposed European moves to ban lead from petrol [2];
  
• repeatedly delayed necessary revisions to the format of its public information bulletins, to prevent the public being misled [3];
  
• opposed calls for it to set national targets for the reduction of road traffic [4].
  

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] John Major was writing today in the Daily Telegraph. The Government is due to publish its air quality strategy later this morning.

[2] Environment Watch: Western Europe (18 October 1996) contains a report of a rare public meeting of the Council of European Environment Ministers, at which Lord Lindsay said the Government would oppose "any proposal to tighten" proposed emissions standards for new cars and fuels "arbitrarily".

Germany, Austria, Sweden and many other European countries are calling for the fuel standards to be tightened by lowering the maximum permissible content of sulphur in petrol and diesel. This would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons from petrol cars and of small particles from diesel vehicles. It would also enable the introduction of cars with far cleaner catalysts.

Lord Lindsay said Britain would oppose a ban on lead in petrol.

[3] In January 1995, the Government announced that is consultation on air quality public information would be published "shortly" ("Air Quality: Meeting the Challenge").

However, its publication was repeatedly delayed until January 1997. As a result, the Government continues to this day to issue air quality bulletins that describe air quality as "good" when pollution levels exceeds its own recommended standards.

During over 90% of ozone "summertime smogs" last year, the Government's air quality bulletin described air quality as good.

[4] In its Green Paper "Transport: the Way Forward" , the Government rejected calls for it to set national targets for road traffic reduction. It forced the Liberal Democrat MP,Don Foster to delete any references to national targets from his Road Traffic Reduction Bill.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust