Cars which comply with the clean-air regulations, will be given a green window disk. In Berlin, almost 80 per cent of the city's 1.2 million registered cars have received the green disk. In Cologne 280,000 disks have been distributed while Hanover has given out over 36,000. A car entering the Berlin city centre without displaying the green disk will be fined 40 euros.

On 1 March, other German cities, including Stuttgart and Mannheim, will be introducing similar schemes. Supporters hope that banning ‘dirty’ cars from the centres of cities will reduce the amount of fine-particle dust to 50 micrograms per one cubic metre of air. However, some mayors argue that air pollution should be tackled nationally and not city by city. Christian Ude, mayor of Munich, said cities could not win the fight against fine particles alone. “It is the job of the federal government and the European Union to regulate fine particles, not German cities,” he added.

Source: City Mayors