Seoul's air cleanup will start with bans on diesel vehicles

Grade 4 diesel vehicles, the second-lowest in the country's five-tier emissions standard, will be banned from Seoul's central areas starting 2025.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announces Clearer Seoul 2030, a comprehensive plan to improve the city's air quality, at Seoul City Hall on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Grade 4 diesel vehicles, the second-lowest in the country's five-tier emissions standard, will be banned from Seoul’s central areas starting 2025.

In addition, village buses, delivery motorbikes and trucks will all go electric by 2026.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon unveiled a comprehensive plan to improve air quality of his megacity dubbed Clearer Seoul 2030 on Wednesday. It's a major part of the Korean capital's ambition to be one of the top 10 greenest cities in the world.

This is a follow-up to Clear Seoul 2010, the pollution plan Oh announced in 2007 during an earlier term as mayor.

“When I took office 15 years ago, I promised Seoul citizens to return the three years that were lost in their lifespans [due to air pollution],” said Oh during a press briefing Wednesday at Seoul City Hall. “Now, I will make Seoul a city boasting the highest level of air quality in the world both in name and reality.

“By 2026, we will reduce the concentration of ultrafine dust in Seoul to 15 micrograms per cubic meter, which is similar to that of Jeju Island,” Oh said. “By 2030, we will lower the ultrafine dust to 13 micrograms per cubic meter [which is half the current level] and make air quality like that of London and Paris.”

The key to the plan is a swift replacing of pollution-causing diesel cars with electric vehicles as well as strengthening management of places that emit pollutants, including construction sites and small businesses. Eventually, the city aims to cut its air pollutant emissions in half by 2030.

Seoul plans to invest 3.8 trillion won ($2.6 billion) through 2030 in the project.

Under the plan, more diesel cars will be banned in central Seoul.

Currently, Grade 5 diesel vehicles are banned in the central Seoul areas throughout the year, and in all parts of the city from December through March, when dust levels are highest.

The mayor said diesel cars classified as Grade 4 in terms of emission levels, or equivalent to the European emission standards Euro 4, would be banned from central Seoul beginning in 2025. The ban will be expanded to all of Seoul from 2030.

Grade 4 diesel cars produce six times more fine dust than Grade 3 cars, the city explained.

To encourage people to scrap their diesel cars, the city government promised 4 million won scrapping incentive per vehicle to a total of 10,000 units annually.

The city plans to ban all vehicles powered by internal combustion engines in central downtown areas in 2035 and across the city in 2050.

Officials from Seoul city government give an explanation looking at a CCTV footage. In order to reduce air pollutants, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced it will ban more old diesel cars from Seoul's central areas from the current Grade 5 diesel cars to Grade 4 starting 2025. [YONHAP]

Seoul is also speeding up the replacement of diesel cars with low-pollution vehicles.

It will replace 33,400 delivery motorcycles by 2025, as well as 457 village buses and 6,100 delivery trucks by 2026. Seoul's fleet of city buses has already completed the shift from diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG).

The city said it will offer subsidies to delivery companies and delivery platforms to get them replace their cars with electric vehicles. The city added it will form a consultative body with Gyeonggi and Incheon to replace diesel buses coming from the two neighboring regions with low-pollution buses.

In addition, 3.01 million household water boilers will be replaced with eco-friendly products by 2030, and the use of old construction machines at construction sites will be restricted.

In addition to improving air quality, the city expects the plan to create 28,000 jobs.

Mayor Oh warned that the city’s efforts alone could not clean up Seoul's skies.

“Among the air pollution sources of Seoul, around 26 percent is generated by Seoul itself, 30 percent is from the greater capital area and 40 percent is from China — while the figure may vary depending on seasonal factors,” Oh said.

“The relationship with China is very important,” he added.

"Ten years ago, there was a consultative body in which the mayors of Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing met regularly to discuss air quality issues, but at some point, but that no longer became operational due to diplomatic issues,” said Oh. “I will try to see if there is a way to revive it during my term in office.”

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]