UK moves up deadline to ban sales of new gasoline and diesel vehicles

The United Kingdom will end the domestic sale of gas- and diesel-powered automobiles by 2030, 10 years before the country previously planned to do so, the British government said Wednesday.

In a plan released by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office styled as a 10-point plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution,” the government pledged to “end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, 10 years earlier than planned,” in the year 2030.

“We are taking decisive action to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, with all vehicles being required to have a significant zero emissions capability (e.g. plug-in and full hybrids) from 2030 and be 100% zero emissions from 2035,” the plan read.

“We must take advantage of the once in a generation opportunity to build a world-leading [electric vehicle] supply chain here in the UK and improve air quality in our towns and cities,” it continued.

The ambitious move is in stark contrast to the environmental policy pursued by President Trump’s administration, which pulled out of the Paris climate agreement in mid-2017 and has traditionally struck a tone of skepticism toward the issue of man-made climate change.

The president himself is a vocal critic of the Green New Deal, a plan touted by progressives, including its main sponsors, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), as a jobs-focused program that would shift the U.S. away from fossil fuels toward clean energy usage.

Trump and Johnson are seen as close allies, though the British prime minister recently congratulated Trump’s opponent, President-elect Joe Biden, on his election victory despite Trump’s refusal to concede and his attempts to legally challenge the results in several states.