Paris to limit vehicle use to reduce air pollution

Paris, June 26 (IANS) Paris will restrict car use on Wednesday as a measure to fight against surging air pollution linked to intense heat wave that strikes most of French regions, the city's police department announced on Tuesday.

Only electric vehicles and those with clean air stickers 1 and 2 are allowed to enter the French capital on June 26 from 5:30 a.m. local time to midnight, Paris police prefecture said.

Called also Crit'Air vignettes, the stickers have six colours that identify the emissions the vehicle produces according to the European emissions standard, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The other vehicles, mostly older and diesel cars, will be preventing from circulating in Paris following the unusual heatwave.

Amid expected high level of ozone pollution linked to rising temperatures, speed limits will also be cut by 20 kilometer per hour in Paris and Ile-de-France on Wednesday, while vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes will be asked to bypass the city centre and nearby surroundings completely.

Furthermore, Paris police department called on businesses that use polluting machinery to reduce operations, and avoid using solvent-based products, such as acetone, varnishes, glues or paints.

Like major Western European countries where unprecedented high temperatures will appear in at least the next six days, France is set to witness unseasonable temperatures which could even exceed 38 degrees Celsius in parts of eastern and southern regions in the coming days.

For Wednesday, Meteo France predicts 34 degrees Celsius in the French capital. Temperature could reach up to 39 degrees by Friday afternoon.

Meteo France has put 65 departments, including Ile-de-France (Paris and its suburb), under orange alert due to intense heatwave and decided to maintain the alert system in these areas till Wednesday afternoon.