London hosts world's largest low emission zone

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's largest clean transport area comes into effect in London on Monday.

The British capital's low emission zone will add to its reputation as a leader in sustainable transport policies, following its congestion pricing scheme.

Low emission zones are already in operation or planned in 70 towns and cities in eight European countries including Norway, the Netherlands and Germany. But London's will dwarf them all.

"This will be the first in Britain and the largest in the world by a significant margin," said a spokeswoman for Transport for London, which will run the scheme.

The scheme will initially apply only to diesel lorries over 12 tonnes which have to comply with strict European Union limits on particulate or soot emissions from their exhausts.

Cameras at 75 sites in and around the zone will snap the licence plates of vehicles. These will be checked against a central database to make sure the vehicles comply.

Lorries that do not comply and have not been retro-fitted with exhaust scrubbers to bring them up to standard will be charged 200 pounds a day to be in the zone.

All foreign-registered lorries will have to register with the database and fines will be issued for non-compliance.