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 NOx-Emissions in the town of Zurich 1990 and 2005.
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Zurich
Air Quality Improvement
A lot has been done in Switzerland and in the town of Zurich during the last years
to increase air quality by reducing emissions of all relevant sources. Most of
these actions are of technical nature. The most important actions were:
- Swiss OAPC sets emission regulations for about 40 specific industrial plants and 150 pollutants
- Swiss VOC-Tax
- Starting in 1970, stepwise aggravation of emission regulations for motorized vehicles, since 1995 EU-regulations (EURO 2 – EURO 5)
- Mandatory, periodic emission controls for vehicles
- Speed limits 30 km/h in habituated areas and enforced speeding controls by the police
- DeNOx-systems and electric dust filters in all the waste incineration plants
- Systematic replacement of house heating systems with Low-NOx-systems
- Preference of residents for local public parking lots
Hence the emissions of nitrogen oxides in the city of Zurich in 2005 have become less than half
of the emissions in 1990.
Further regulations have in principle been decided by the Swiss government to be implemented in near future:
- Premature establishment of the EURO 5 regulations for diesel soot,
- Stricter emission regulations for agricultural vehicles and motor-bikes,
- Establishment of a "CO2-Tax", if the aims in climate policies can’t be reached by other means (CO2-Law),
- Ecological tax reform. Change from taxing work to taxing energy and energy consump-tion.
Further possible measures
- "Road pricing",
- Diesel soot filter systems for all diesel engines incl. agricultural vehicles,
- Emission regulation for all engine powered working tools,
- De-NOx systems for heavy duty vehicles,
- Prohibition of burning forestry and agricultural waste,
- Increased promotion of public transport
Which of these actions can and will be implemented depends on the Swiss government and Swiss parliament.
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