The consultation on the UK Air Quality Plan has been published. Matthew Pencharz has spoken out after the publishing of the Plan by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, or Defra. The former Deputy Mayor of London, Matthew Pencharz has said that the Government needs to do more to encourage local authorities in order to introduce and obtain the necessary powers to enforce environmental regulations on areas such as construction sites in order to promote the use of clean technologies following the Government Air Quality Plan that has been released by Defra.
The Government Air Quality Plan that has been published appears to be quite unambitious, considering the construction equipment in London accounts for 7% of the emissions which leads to the high NO2 concentrations that are currently at a level which is unacceptable. These high levels of NO2 are high across the country and action needs to be taken in order to improve the air quality.
However, the clean technologies that are available in this sector use batteries. These batteries can be used to supply temporary power for construction sites and events. These batteries are available in the marketplace and would lead to a significant reduction of air pollution if adopted more widely. Off Grid Energy is a company that works to save their customers thousands of pounds in fuel costs by using these clean technologies. These procedures could also reduce the pollution and noise created by construction sites.
The former deputy Mayor of London has said that it is disappointing that the Defra Air Quality Plan that has been set out by the Government does not set out the reductions that the UK need to have a significant impact on the air pollution. More could be done to promote the utilization of these cleaner energy technologies that will save money as well as reduce emissions. The Air Quality Plan has previously set out regulations to start cleaning up the construction industry however in the newest publication, there was only mention of new machines being brought in to use in 2019, and no reference to any older and more polluting companies.
