UK and France will ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars from 2040

In December, the European commission started legal action against the UK and six other EU states for failing to act against car emissions cheating in the wake of the dieselgate scandal. But later the same month, a draft European parliament inquiry found the European commission itself guilty of maladministration for failing to act quickly enough on evidence that defeat devices were being used to game emissions tests.

Evidence that some diesel cars emitted up to four times more NOx pollution than a bus was revealed in 2015. Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP and a lead negotiator on the EU’s air quality law, said “It is disgraceful that car manufacturers have failed to reduce deadly emissions when the technology to do so is affordable and readily available. The dramatic reduction in NOx emissions from heavier vehicles is a result of far stricter EU tests, in place since 2011, that reflect real-world driving conditions. If buses and trucks can comply with these limits, there’s no reason cars can’t as well.”

The global human health impact of the diesel emissions scandal has been revealed by new research showing a minimum of 38,000 people a year die early due to the failure of diesel vehicles to meet official limits in real driving conditions.

Researchers have created the first global inventory of the emissions pumped out by cars and trucks on the road, over and above the legal limits which are monitored by lab-based tests. Virtually all diesel cars produce far more toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) than regulations intend and these excess emissions amounted to 4.6m tonnes in 2015, the team found.

This led to at least 38,000 premature deaths due to heart and lung disease and strokes. Most of the deaths are in Europe, where highly polluting cars are the main culprit, and in China and India, where dirty trucks cause most of the damage.

The work also shows that, even if diesel cars did meet emissions limits, there would still be 70,000 early deaths per year. Excess NOx emissions are rising, the researchers found, and strict pollution controls need to be put in place to avoid the death toll rising to 174,000 in 2040.

A spokesman declined to explain why one of the most carbon heavy fossil fuel capacity was being encouraged saying Decc was in “purdah” due to the general election campaign.

The need for demand response to meet peaks in power has become more acute because old coal and nuclear power stations have been retired and fewer than expected new gas-fired generation built.

Tim Yeo MP, the outgoing chairman of the House of Commons select committee on energy and climate change, described the diesel farm boom as “ridiculous” and campaigned for more to be done on demand reduction.

Tom Greatrex, the shadow energy minister, said earlier rounds of the capacity market had already rewarded mini fossil fuel power stations: “It was clear from the outset that the capacity market risked locking in a new generation of dirty diesel generators that were too small to be affected by carbon policies. Sure enough, 40MW of small diesel generators have now secured 15-year subsidies.”