[Photo] Seoul mayor targets old cars in bid to reduce pollution

Following a week of heavy fine particle pollution in Seoul, Mayor Park Won-soon held a press conference at City Hall on Jan. 21 to announce a series of steps to target older, high polluting vehicles. First, diesel powered cars older than 10 years and gasoline powered cars manufactured before 2000 will be banned from Seoul’s city center beginning next year. These vehicles currently account for 13.3% of the cars in the capital.

Hwang Bo-yeon, head of the Climate and Environment Policy department with the Seoul City government, said, “Paris has implemented this system and the it has resulted in a 12% reduction of fine particle dust.” Mayor Park also directed the Ministry of the Environment to quicken its implementation of the vehicle eco-friendly rating system so that it would be functioning in the first half of this year. He will also push for a new law to ban vehicles with even or odd numbered license plates from driving on days with heavy pollution.