The ESG welcomes the announcement of Transport now forming part of the Ministry for the Environments responsibilities. Transport in Gibraltar has long been an issue of concern to the group given the serious environmental and public health impacts from this activity. It believes air pollution and climate change factors, as laid out in Gibraltar’s Climate Strategy, underpins the need for urgent action in this area.

The ESG has published its wish list in many areas including Road Transport issues since 2003. Among our urgent objectives are:

– The need to launch and enforce the anti idling law, especially in vulnerable locations such as schools, all bus stops (Govt and Private), taxi ranks, coach parks and at popular tourist sites.

– The need to replace all second hand buses, which fail EU emission standards in place to protect public health, with clean alternatives.

– Thirdly we need to update our MOT emission standards, which permits vehicles  to pollute to their date of manufacture allowing emission of dangerous levels of pollutants. These are especially harmful to the young and the elderly.

On an ongoing basis there are several other issues we are concerned about regarding impacts from Transport that we will take up with the new Minister for Transport as soon as we are given a meeting date.

For those interested please search our website for our 2019 List of Objectives which carries a detailed look at our long-term issues.