Paris #StopSUV vote passes
Yesterday, the city of Paris unanimously passed the #StopSUV vote. In a people’s referendum, 54.6% voted in favour of introducing tripled parking fees for SUVs in the French capital.
The vote follows a trend of decisions in Paris - including gradually banning diesel vehicles and increasing bicycle lane capacity - that signal a clear shift away from car-centric, congested cities and towards climate-conscious planning that priorises public space and safety. According to polling conducted before the vote, more than 6 out of 10 Parisians were in favour of increasing parking charges for large, heavy and more polluting vehicles, and the majority have a negative opinion of SUVs overall.
These heavy and super-heavy CO2-emitting cars are far more prevalent in the highest-income postcodes, with the uber-wealthy borough of Kensington & Chelsea known as the large SUV capital of Britain. In contrast, 70% of people on the lowest incomes in big cities like London don’t own cars at all. Yet it is London’s most deprived communities that are exposed to the highest levels of toxic air pollution - a trend echoed across cities and countries around the world.
The greenwashing power of SUV adverts
Heavy, huge and highly polluting, on average SUVs produce 20% more CO2 emissions than conventional cars. According to the International Energy Agency, SUVS produced almost 1 billion tonnes of CO2 - and were responsible for a third of the increase in global oil demand - in 2022 alone. If SUVs were a country, they would be the sixth most polluting in the world.
Yet carmakers spent an estimated $42 billion on marketing in 2022, with adverts filled with natural landscapes and open roads, encouraging people to buy bigger, more dangerous SUV models. Walk through any SUV-clogged city, however, and you'll see the stark reality.
Three-quarters of new SUVs and two-thirds of all large SUVs bought in the UK are registered to urban addresses; with most registered to wealthier districts. In 2019, 150,000 cars were sold in the UK that were too big to fit into a standard parking space, and cars are getting approximately 1cm wider year on year.
The Paris vote is a clear sign that city dwellers are tired of massive cars dominating their streets, and a resounding call to make cities work for people, not profit and pollution. People want safe, clean streets, and it's clearer than ever that SUVs provide neither.
Ads filled with the promise of adventure and the open road can no longer hide the truth, nor are they escaping regulatory scrutiny. In November 2023 two Toyota SUV ads were banned by the UK ad regulator because they “condoned the use of vehicles in a manner that disregarded their impact on nature and the environment … they had not been prepared with a sense of responsibility to society”.
After all, it’s the most vulnerable who are most adversely affected by SUVs' climate-wrecking consequences.
‘David Belliard, a deputy mayor of Paris for the Green party, said: “SUVs cost between €6,000 to €7,000 more than a standard car and all the studies by car firms show that they are bought by the wealthiest people with high incomes … This measure, if applied, will be directed at the richest people in order to finance the transformation of our public space to adapt to the climate crisis, so it’s a form of social redistribution.”’
Air pollution from burning fossil fuels kills 8.7 million people per year. Add this to those who are impacted by increasing extreme weather events and the consequences of climate breakdown around the world, and the numbers are staggering.
As the people of Paris have shown, the tide is turning on SUVs. We’re calling for an end to SUV advertising to reduce demand for city-clogging tanks that fuel the climate crisis, and instead to start creating better public spaces that work for people and planet.