France's capital city, the world's most visited city, according to Reuters, plans to ban all petrol and diesel-fueled vehicles by 2030, officials announced Thursday.
Paris will encourage commuters who don't walk, bike or use public transportation to switch to electric cars.
The move is, in part, a pollution-reducing effort.
"This is about planning for the long term with a strategy that will reduce greenhouse gases," Christophe Najdovski, a transportation policy official for the city of Paris, told France Info radio. "Transport is one of the main greenhouse gas producers ... So we are planning an exit from combustion engine vehicles, or fossil-energy vehicles, by 2030."
According to the CBC, city officials said it was introducing a "feasible and realistic" goal of phasing out of gas vehicles instead of calling the move a "ban" on such cars.
Paris has seen significant amounts of rising air pollution in the last few years. In response, Paris Mayor Ann Hidalgo and government officials have approved "no-car zones, car-free days and fines for drivers who enter the city in cars that are more than 20 years old," Reuters reported. Officials have also approved days of free public transportation, introduced rentable bikes and electric cars in the city and banned traffic from the popular Champs-Elysees Avenue once a month, among other measures.
Officials hope that France as an entire country will ditch cars dependent on fossil fuels by 2040.
“This government goal affects the whole French territory, rural zones included,” a Paris City Hall statement said. “If we want to achieve this, it implies that the end of diesel and gasoline should take place several years in advance in urban areas, and particularly in big cities.”
Oxford, England, recently announced plans to ban non-electric cars from parts of the city by 2020.
Paris will host the Olympic Games in 2024. There are about 32 million household cars in France, according to the London Evening Standard.
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