As both a petrolhead and a UK resident, I do think this is moving in the right direction. The internal-combustion engine has had its day. Electric and alternative-fuel vehicles are rising in efficiency and range, and it's becoming much more practical to ditch fossil fuels. The number of scandals that have come to light over increasingly tight emissions regulations shows that there is no future in burning fuel. Hopefully the price of electric cars will continue to fall as battery technology improves, although we do still need to address the problem of emissions from manufacturing the batteries in the first place and emissions from generating electricity to charge them. Also, hopefully 2040 is a hard deadline, and car makers will retire the ICE before that point.
That said, I hope the use of older cars won't be outright banned. Even though electric cars are becoming much better performers with improving technology, you cannot beat the roar and power curve of a combustion engine around a track or twisty road. Hopefully they'll go like horses - electric cars will take over point to point transport, while ICE-powered vehicles will be for recreation.
Elsewhere, while this is a good start, I think we seriously need to rein in the emissions of EVERYTHING that burns fossil fuels. Power plants are already under scrutiny, but shipping is not - it's becoming increasingly clearer that container ships, which burn low-quality heavy oil in international waters, contribute vastly more to air pollution than a large number of cars.
That said, I hope the use of older cars won't be outright banned. Even though electric cars are becoming much better performers with improving technology, you cannot beat the roar and power curve of a combustion engine around a track or twisty road. Hopefully they'll go like horses - electric cars will take over point to point transport, while ICE-powered vehicles will be for recreation.
Elsewhere, while this is a good start, I think we seriously need to rein in the emissions of EVERYTHING that burns fossil fuels. Power plants are already under scrutiny, but shipping is not - it's becoming increasingly clearer that container ships, which burn low-quality heavy oil in international waters, contribute vastly more to air pollution than a large number of cars.