Stockholm to ban petrol and diesel cars in its city centre by 2025

Stockholm is set to become the first major capital to ban all petrol-diesel cars from its centre

Stockholm has announced plans to ban all petrol and diesel cars from its centre by 2025 as it aims to become the world’s first major city to do so.

The Swedish capital will have no petrol-diesel cars in the key parts of the city centre as it seeks to improve air quality and reduce traffic noise, the vice mayor for transport said on Tuesday.

The ban will apply to 20 blocks of Stockholm’s inner city area, spanning its office real estate and main shopping districts, where only electric vehicle traffic will be allowed from 2025.

The plan can be further expanded to other areas and a decision for that will be taken early in 2025.

Stockholm’s air quality is safer to breathe than many major cities like New York and London. However, the pollution levels exceed the standard set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), according to the IQAir index.

Hundreds of vulnerable groups, including senior citizens and children, experience health challenges due to long term exposure to pollution in Sweden.

The Green Party, part of the Stockholm City Council’s ruling coalition, said it hopes the new rules will encourage more people to exchange their old cars and move to electric vehicles.

“Nowadays, the air in Stockholm causes babies to have lung conditions and the elderly to die prematurely. It is a completely unacceptable situation,” the vice mayor for transport Lars Stromgren of Green Party said in a statement.

The law, however, has several exceptions. While only private electric cars will be allowed in the central zone under the scheme, some bigger vans, with plug-in hybrid engines will also be allowed.

Exceptions have also been made for emergency vehicles like ambulance and fire brigades under the regulation as well as for cars with driver or passengers who have a documented disability.

The plan has received flak from the representatives of transport industry who said the government seems to be “too much in hurry”.

“Since 2010, we have reduced emissions by 34 per cent. But the Green party and their colleagues in the city of Stockholm are now in far too much of a hurry,” the Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises said.