Image credit: BBC
Saving money on energy and being trendy may have attracted some buyers of wood burning stoves, but now reaction to air pollution claims is threatening to knock many such sales on the head. Bad news for some who already own them.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is seeking new powers to ban wood burning in the most polluted areas of the capital, says BBC News. The mayor has written to the Environment Secretary Michael Gove asking for greater powers to tackle air pollution not caused by traffic.
Mr Khan wants to introduce a network of “zero-emission zones” where the burning of wood or coal is completely prohibited. He also wants tougher controls on the sale of wood-burning stoves.
Under the mayor’s proposals only low-emission versions of wood-burning stoves would be allowed to remain on the market. There are currently 187 areas of London where pollution regularly exceeds European limits.
Mr Khan’s plans also include curbing emissions from machinery on building sites, such as diesel-powered diggers, and boats on the Thames.
Mr Khan said in a statement: “With more than 400 schools located in areas exceeding legal pollution levels, and such significant health impacts on our most vulnerable communities, we cannot wait any longer and I am calling on government to provide the capital with the necessary powers to effectively tackle harmful emissions from a variety of sources.”
Continued here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Mr Khan should enforce zero-population zones, not just zero-emission.
He’s getting good at banning things people like.
Flashback to Jan. 2017…
GWPF: GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR WOOD-BURNING PARTLY TO BLAME FOR RISING SMOG THREAT
Date: 24/01/17 Global Warming Policy Forum
In response to the London smog alert, the Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) is calling on the Government to abolish all support for diesel engines and wood-burners which are posing a growing threat to the health of urban populations.
. . .
Unusually high amount of domestic wood burning, some of which are subsidised under the Renewable Heat Incentive, has been partly blamed for the latest smog alarm.
Wood-burning has been advocated and [given] incentives by the Government as a policy to decarbonise the residential sector and has been increasing rapidly in recent years, largely due to a combination of green subsidies and climate campaigning.
As a result, there has been a deterioration of air quality in many cities which has contributed to the current smog hazard in London. Like wood-burning stoves, diesel engines have also been specifically encouraged by EU, and UK policies, in the interests of reduced CO2 emissions. [bold added]
http://www.thegwpf.com/gwpf-government-support-for-wood-burning-partly-to-blame-for-rising-smog-threat/
More ‘green’ policies bite the dust.
Communists always want more power over the people. What is really needed to solve the pollution problem, is a law that forces the Mayor to provide the people Affordable clean Electrical power, so they don’t have to resort to wood burning for warming their homes. As someone that Has to use wood heat or freeze, I would much rather use electric. Expensive, undependable, electrical service precludes that. The Mayor must fix the problem! that is his job. He just wants to force the poor to fix his problem at no cost to the city…pg
The greens always get the cart before the horse. In this case it is banning wood for heating rather providing cheap alternative means of heating.
It is assumed by the greens that we should all use electricity for everything including heating. To do this electricity should be less than 0.5p per kWh, after all the wind is free.
No , I am not advocating the use of the unreliables, just illustrating the green stupidity. To get down to real cheap prices we need coal and or gas fired boilers or thorium reactors unencumbered with green taxes and subsidy out payments. We also need to get out from under from the EUssr 5 year plan to bankrupt the economies of most of their area.
I remember London in the late 1950’s. Very smoggy place then. Looks quite good these days on TV.
Slower traffic = more exhaust fumes for longer…
TfL explains that the historic decline in traffic speeds is most likely due to interventions that have reduced the effective capacity of the road network to improve the urban environment, increase road safety and prioritise public transport, pedestrian and cycle traffic, as well as an increase in road works by utilities and general development activity since 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_congestion_charge
Slower traffic… nothing to do with population increase?
A little bit Richard but it has much more to do with narrowing the roads by dedicated cycle and bus lanes. When you reduce two traffic lanes to one yet still have the same amount of traffic everything slows down and more so when you add more traffic lights.
The greens have a lot to answer for for clogging up all cities.