Arnhem extends its Low Emission Zone to diesel cars on 1st January 2019.

Read more ...

In February 2019 Milan will get a Low Emission Zone called AREA B that will cover the entire city. 

Read more ...

Here are some external weblinks you may also find useful, in addition to the city and country websites. Please note, we take no responsibility for external websites.

We have information on urban charging schemes. Other websites provide other information (no responsibility is taken for external websites):

European public transport travel planners
European national travel planners, local transport operators,

Global map of public transport
See what public transport is available. Not all cities are available, zoom in to get the transport lines. Press the play button, and the dots move according to timetable.

Choosing the right transport method
The EU's Do The Right Mix website

More efficient driving
The EU's Green Driving Tool, that helps you to reduce fuel costs and to select a suitable type of car for your purposes/journeys while reducing CO₂ emissions

European motorway tolls
From the UK Automobile Association: www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/overseas/european_tolls_select.jsp

From the hire car company Sixt: www.sixt.com/toll-roads/

Coach Parking Sites:
A German-based website for European coach parking sites: http://busparkplatz.eu/
Interactive map for parking in London: www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/coach-drivers

Lorry Parking Site: The IRU website provides truck parking sites within its TRANSPark site: http://www.iru.org/transpark-app
Car Parking Information: Information on parking throughout Europe can be found on www.en.parkopedia.com/
European Commission, Clean Urban Transport page
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/urban/index_en.htm

European Commission, Urban Mobility Package
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/urban/ump_en.htm

UK Highways Agency Traffic Information page
www.highways.gov.uk/traffic-information

UK heavy goods vehicle (HGV) levy
https://www.gov.uk/hgv-levy (must be paid before driving a non UK registered HGV into the UK)

Dieselnet.com
A useful source of information on diesel exhaust emissions, emission control technologies, emission standards, regulations etc.
Emissions Analytics EQUA Air Quality Index allows you to identify the vehicle with the lowest fuel use, CO₂, or nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions in actual road conditions.

Who we are:

This website is provided by the CLARS (Charging, Low Emission Zones, other Access Regulation Schemes). It is provided by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH. It builds on the successful Low Emission Zone in Europe Network (LEEZEN) which has provided this website previously (under the address www.lowemissionzones.eu), also run by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH. 

The CLARS website provides information urban access regulation schemes; including urban road user tolling, Low Emission Zones and other access restriction schemes. These are the regulations that many towns and cities use to improve their air quality, noise, traffic and quality of life issues. We are the truly 1 stop shop on urban access regulations called for by the industry. We also support cities and other public authorities with their access regulation schemes, see our CLARS public authority Platform page.

We are funded through Additional Services, Licence Fees and Sponsorship. 

If you would like more information on urban access regulations, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. about our additional services.

If you find our website useful, even if you don’t need any of the services above, please consider sponsoring us. Without funding, we cannot continue giving you the information you need.

Additional services can include:

• Our data, including in different formats or summarised, or certain types of schemes 
• Details of the increasing numbers Zero Emission Zones
• Electric Vehicle and other propulsion advantages / disadvantages in Urban Access Regulations and Urban areas.
• Our website provides information on confirmed schemes. We also have information on future not yet n-confirmed schemes
• Access to our data for other purposes
• Additional features on the website, perhaps upon login.
• or anything else on access regulations, as we are likely to have that too!

Please may I take the opportunity to remind you that the data on our website is covered by database copyright, and all rights are reserved. No part of the website may be reproduced, transmitted, or utilised in any form or by any means for purposes other than personal use without written permission from ourselves. For more information, see our Terms and Conditions.

If you are interested in any of the above please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Keep up to date: If you are interested in receiving our newsletter, please register - find the button at the top of the page. If you are working on access regulations for public authorities - cities or ministries - then see our public authority page.

If you want to contact someone about any of the access regulation schemes, then please contact the individual city. The city and further information websites are given on the individual city page.

This website was funded from 23rd December 2013 to 22nd December 2017 within a contract with the European Union. From 23rd December 2017 the website is run on a Commercial funding basis by Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH.

Impressium/Contacts

Sadler Consultants Europe GmbH VAT no: DE 31 64 63 385. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Webaddress: www.airqualitypolicy.eu

We  keep this website up to date, with new and altered low emission zones, urban charging schemes, and other urban access regulations.

If you wish to receive our periodic alerts, please register with us with the button at the bottom of the page. Registration is free.

If you are a public authority (city, ministry, city transport agency), please register for our public authority newsletter from our public authority page.

For press inquiries, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., we can also help you draft articles, please just ask.

LEZs in the following countries require action before you enter the zone. The situation for each country is listed below, in alphabetical order. 

A separate sticker is required per country. With the exception that the Swiss scheme accepts the French stickers, and any future CZ schemes would accept the German stickers.

For all low emission zones, a single Sticker is valid for each country. In Italy, the only low emission zone that requires a sticker are those for the Bolzano Province in Italy, where there is a single sticker for the whole region). 

   

Please note:
Please allow enough time for the sticker to reach you. At times of high demand to foreign addresses it can take up to a few weeks.
Do not get caught out by scam Sticker Sellers!! Please also note, for the lowest cost stickers, please buy stickers from the official sources linked to on this website. There are both fake sites and sites that charge up to 5 times as much as the official websites linked from our website.

Austria: windscreen stickers are increasingly needed in the Austrian LEZs. Stickers are required for Vienna and Niederösterreich, and we recommend getting a sticker for heavy duty vehicles in Austria. In the Austrian LEZs where a sticker is not yet required, you need to show your vehicle papers if controlled.

Belgium, foreign vehicles registered abroad need to register, as well as some other categories, eg some retrofitted vehicles if the retrofit is needed to meet the required standard. Belgian and Dutch vehicles do not, in general, need to register. See our Belgian pages.

Czech Republic: in Prague you will need a windscreen sticker (likely to be able to be either a Czech or German one) once the LEZ starts.

Denmark: all heavy duty vehicles require a sticker, see our Danish pages.

Finland: in Helsinki the LEZs affect only public authority vehicles, under their own arrangements.

France: all vehicles require a Crit Air sticker, see our French pages. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is controlled manually at the toll point, Euro standard is estimated by proof of the age of the vehicle.

Germany: a windscreen sticker is required for all vehicles in all German LEZs. Stickers [Umweltplakette in German] can be bought from garages, testing stations [TÜV], the LEZ city administration, or online, for example from Berlin city.

Greece: in Athens control is manually through vehicle papers, no need to register.

Italy: You only need a sticker in Bolzano-Bozen Autonomous Province , see our Bolzano page. The Mont Blanc Tunnel is controlled manually at the toll point, Euro standard is estimated by proof of the age of the vehicle.

The Netherlands: Dutch vehicles are registered through the national database, no need to register.

Norway: you need to ensure that you pay the tolls for your vehicle. See for example the Oslo LEZ page. 

Portugal: Lisbon control is manually through vehicle papers, no need to register.

Spain: Barcelona and Madrid have emergency smog schemes and Barcelona will have an LEZ. In Madrid parking fees vary by emissions. Get a sticker from the authorities.

Sweden vehicles with existing exemptions need to have a windscreen sticker, no need to register.

UK: In London, British vehicles (not Northern Irish, Channel Island etc) are registered through the national vehicle database. The following vehicles, not on this database need to register separately. Registration makes sure that the authorities have the information on which vehicles comply.

• retrofitted,
• early complying,
• foreign vehicles and
• Northern Irish, Channel Island vehicles

Outside London so far the LEZs in operation affect only public authority vehicles, under their own arrangements.

There are a number of fictions about Low Emission Zones. This document looks to clarifies some of them and separates fact from fiction.

 

 

Fiction: You must buy a special sticker at a newsagent or Berlin office to be able to drive into Berlin by car.
FACT: There is the same LEZ sticker Germany- wide, and this can be bought on the web (see for example TÜV), by post, person and web from any LEZ authorities and many other German towns. It can also be bought from any TÜV station (annual vehicle inspection agency, at least one in each town). Many hotels in LEZ cities also offer to order the stickers on behalf of their guests, if they get the documents needed in advance.

Fiction: My windscreen will be filled with different stickers.
FACT: For each country which requires stickers, there is one sticker per country.
Stickers are only required for German, French, Spanish, and Danish LEZs and one Italian LEZ.  Stickers are required in Sweden only for very old exemptions. If there are to be low emission zones in the Czech Republic, it is expected that the German sticker will also be valid.

Fiction: There is no cost benefit analysis undertaken for Low Emission Zones.
FACT: Cities that implement LEZs have air quality action plans. This means that they will have assessed their air quality, identified the emissions sources, identified a package of measures to deal with air pollution, and assessed whether a LEZ is an effective measure to implement. In some countries the process towards an LEZ is more formalised, such as in the Dutch roadmap, which sets out what sets need to be taken to implement an LEZ, and under what conditions it can be implemented. However in each LEZ city it will have been assessed and identified as an effective air quality management measure.

Fiction: There is no co-ordination of Low Emission Zones.
FACT: In every country with more than one LEZ there is a national LEZ framework (see here for an outline of each of these national LEZ frameworks). In Germany there is also co-ordination within the Bundesländer (regions), which generally have LEZs with the same emissions standards. The exception is Italy. In Italy there is often regional co-ordination, which can allow for rules for local towns to be more strict than the regional standard. However this is tolling, and a number of regions, for example Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna now have more rigid frameworks, also setting out future plans. Information on all LEZs in Europe can be found on www.urbanaccessregulations.eu.

Fiction: Low Emission Zones are often implemented at short notice.
FACT: Most LEZs are notified at least a year in advance. Some of the German LEZs have been announced more shortly, but therefore often introductory phases with a wider range of exemptions and warning letters instead of penalty notices being issued. The exception is Italy, where in some cases short notice is given of implementation or re-implementation / continuation of a time-limited or winter LEZ.

Fiction: Access to an Low Emission Zone depends on how many children or cars you have.
FACT: This is not the case. In Germany there are ‘hardship’ exemptions that can be applied for. These ‘hardship exemptions’ are for little businesses that can prove that their existence would be threatened by buying a new vehicle, or those on low incomes who can prove that they cannot afford to buy a new vehicles. The definition of low incomes is usually taken from the German legal system, and depends on income levels and the number of people dependent on that income. This is usually for vehicles for which there is no retrofit possible. In Italy, as well as other countries, there is sometimes grants towards scrapping and replacing vehicles for those on low incomes.

Fiction: Low Emission Zones are just there to penalise motorists.
FACT: LEZs are implemented as a part of a wider ranging air quality action plan, looking at reducing emissions from many sources. These other sources can include factories, households, construction, shipping, railways, as well as road transport. Find out more from our "what else is being done to reduce pollution" page. LEZs are implemented to improve air quality which improves health, which affects all, particularly children, the elderly, those in poor health and drivers – see our LEZ background pages for more information.

Fiction: Low Emission Zones have no impacts, and impacts have not been assessed.
FACT: Many LEZs have undertaken post-implementation assessments. The assessments have shown positive impacts on air quality. In some cases there has been marginal impact on one pollutant, but more significant impacts on the other. A selection of LEZ impacts can be found on this page.

Fiction Low Emission Zones are purely environmental measures that take no account of economic or social factors
FACT: LEZs are implemented after careful consideration, as stated above. In all LEZs the emissions standards are chosen to be minimum possible to achieve the air quality improvements needed. LEZs often allow vehicles to be retrofitted with a diesel particulate filter to allow lower cost compliance. Social and economic factors are also taken into account in different ways in different countries. The methods can vary due to the different vehicles affected. For example in Germany and the Netherlands there have been grants towards retrofitting vehicles and hardship exemptions if the vehicle operator can prove they cannot afford to meet the emissions standards. In Italy some LEZs do not operate in the middle of the day, allowing those that are unable to provide access, but with less flexibility. In London occasional access can be gained by paying a daily charge. LEZs ensure that public transport still works to allow people access to the cities.

Fiction: All Low Emission Zones apply to cars.
FACT: The vehicles affected by LEZs vary around Europe, but they are usually focused on heavier vehicles. Few LEZs affect cars, see the city pages for further information.