Having realized that closing schools on unhealthy days and restricting daily trips to the near permanently clogged streets in central Tehran to taxis and a few other exemptions cannot reduce the suffocating air pollution, decision-makers are poised to introduce a new scrappage scheme.
The Department of Environment and the Majlis Industries and Mines Commission have drawn up a plan which requires local carmakers to phase out one clunker for every four new vehicles they sell, ISNA reported.
The plan will be introduced as an amendment to the Clean Air Act, which was proposed as an integrated approach to curb air pollution and was passed by the Parliament in July 2017.
As per an earlier government ruling announced in 2013, carmakers were required to contribute to a national scrappage scheme. It required local automotive companies to send one old car to the junkyard if they produced vehicles with fuel consumptions over 8.5 liters/100 kilometers.
As per the same rule, importers were also obliged to contribute to the scheme depending on the fuel consumption of cars they brought into Iran.
However, during a string of policy reforms that started in the summer of last year, Industries Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari exempted local carmakers from the rule.
According to the head of the Association for Scrappage and Recycling Centers, Mostafa Joudi, domestic carmakers were excluded from scrapping the old and rickety cars, thanks to their strong lobby and links to policymakers, and importers were left with the flak.
A Thing of the Past
Later this year, as the last nail in the coffin of the scrappage scheme, auto imports were altogether banned in Iran.
Joudi says the scrapping centers have started to shut down one after another as domestic carmakers were exempted from the scheme and auto imports became history.
But now revival of the scrappage scheme as an amendment to the Clean Air Act has renewed hopes of owners of the scrapping centers.
> Air Pollution Mortality
According to Tehran Governorate website, over 2,500 old and dilapidated cars built three decades ago ply the packed roads of the capital every day doing a terrible job in contributing to the worsening air pollution.
Experts have often emphasized that dilapidated vehicles are one of the prime sources of pollution and the toxic air, increasing the risk of health problems and even premature death.
With thousands of premature pollution-related deaths every year, Iran is among the top five countries in terms of air pollution mortality.
Data from the Ministry of Health indicate that during the fiscal that ended in March 2017, close to 12,798 pollution-related deaths were recorded with one-third of the fatalities in Tehran.
