The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said he will monitor the effectiveness of Paris’s plan to increase parking charges for sports utility vehicles if it is approved in an upcoming referendum.
Khan was speaking at an event at which he apologised on behalf of the Greater London Authority to the family of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who died in 2013, aged nine, as a result of London’s dirty air.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, has said she wants to push SUVs out of the city and limit emissions and air pollution. Announcing the policy in December, she declared: “It is a form of social justice.” Paris will hold a referendum on Sunday asking residents to vote for or against a specific parking tariff for heavy, large and polluting SUVs.
Khan welcomed Hidalgo’s plan and said he would watch it closely. He told the Guardian: “We always examine policies around the globe. I’m a firm believer in stealing good policies. Rather than inventing [new policies] badly, if other cities are doing stuff that works, we will copy them.”
Khan said he knew SUVs were a particular problem that needed to be tackled: “SUVs take up more space and we know there’s issues around road safety, we know there’s issues around carbon emissions and so forth. We know some councils in London are taking bold policies in relation to parking fees, in relation to your tickets and so forth. It’s really good to work with those councils.”
A spokesperson for Khan later told the Guardian that the mayor does not currently have the power to implement parking levies on SUVs and has no plans to do so.
Large sport vehicles are a cause of rising transport pollution, according to research. While they are billed as vehicles designed to cover rough ground or tow heavy loads, research has shown that three-quarters of SUVs bought new in the UK are registered to people living in urban areas. A recent study found that the effect of rising sales of SUVs, and the fact they tend to be heavier than the traditional models previously bought, means the average conventional-engined car bought in 2023 had higher carbon emissions than its 2013 equivalent.
Ella grew up near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, south-east London, and developed asthma just before her seventh birthday. The asthma attacks left her struggling to breathe and she required frequent hospital visits. A few weeks after her ninth birthday she suffered a fatal asthma attack.
In December 2020 the coroner concluded that air pollution contributed to Ella’s death, and she became the first person in the world to have it recorded as a cause of death on her death certificate.
Ella’s mother, Rosamund, said justice for her daughter would be served when the UK government passed strong air quality laws to prevent other children suffering a similar fate.
She said: “I would like to thank the mayor for his apology on behalf of the city today. Nothing will ever make up for the pain and suffering that Ella went through, and nothing will ever make up for the pain and suffering my family has been through since losing her in such circumstances.
“My goal has always been to stop other children from suffering like Ella did. My family and I will continue to fight for the health of all children and, with everyone’s support, one day we will get justice for Ella Roberta.”
Adoo-Kissi-Debrah has been campaigning for “Ella’s law”, which would establish a right to clean air and set up a commission to oversee government actions and progress. It would also join policies on indoor and outdoor air pollution with actions to combat the climate emergency and include annual reviews of the latest science.
Khan said a Labour government would put this legislation in place. “The Labour party supported the private member’s bill that started with the House of Lords with [the Green peer] Jenny Jones,” he said. “What the government’s done is remarkable in the sense they kick the can down the road and say: ‘Yeah, we agree with that. But we’ll do it in 18 years’ time’.”
• This article was amended on 2 February 2024 to make clear that the mayor does not have the power to raise parking charges for SUVs. The headline and introduction were amended to remove the suggestion that he could introduce such levies.
