Diesel Pollution Costs European Taxpayers Billions

A new report has found that the total cost of air pollution (both health and non-health related) from traffic in the EU reached a staggering €66.7 billion in 2016. The findings come from a study conducted by CE Delft on behalf of the European Public Health Alliance. The research states that diesel accounts for 83 percent of the costs - approximately €55.6 billion.

Diesel emissions have attracted intense scrutiny since Volkswagen was caught cheating regulatory tests in September 2015. The German car manufacturer was found to have intentionally manipulated vehicle emission test software which enabled their cars to emit up to 40 times more NOx in real-world driving than regulatory tests.