The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has won a long-running battle with the French government to introduce emergency traffic bans in the city when air pollution spikes.

 

The move to speed up the introduction of alternate driving days for cars with odd and even number registration plates was announced after pollution spiked in the French capital on Monday, just weeks before the city is due to host a crucial UN climate change summit.

 

The ecology minister, Ségolène Royal, had previously said the measure should only be applied after three consecutive days of low air quality.

 

Parisians have criticized the government on social media for a perceived failure to act over predictions of dangerous levels of pollution from diesel fumes.

 

But on Monday evening, Royal broke her silence to announce that the alternate vehicle ban would come into immediate effect “when the region and the city authorities demand it”.

 

Earlier this year, Paris was briefly more polluted than Shanghai – one of the world’s most polluted cities – when a cloud of noxious smog enveloped many of the capital’s icons including the Eiffel tower.

 

On Sunday, with weather and pollution experts warning that air quality was set to be poor once again, Hidalgo and the Socialist president of the region, Jean-Paul Huchon, insisted the “alternate traffic” rule should be enforced immediately the following day.

 

French researchers estimate air pollution costs France about €101.3bn (£75bn) a year in health, economic and financial damage.

 

 

PHOTO: A view of the Eiffel tower and the city surrounded by high levels of air pollution on 2 November 2015.

CREDIT: Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images.