UK to ban diesel, gasoline vehicles by 2040

The United Kingdom will stop selling new diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2040 as a way to fight pollution, officials have announced.

Michael Gove, the country’s environmental minister, told BBC Radio that “we are confirming that that means there should be no new diesel or petrol vehicles by 2040,” Reuters reports.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is also aiming to make most cars and vans in the country zero-emission by 2050. Her government is also proposing to spend £255 million, or about $332.5 million, to help local governments reduce transit-related emissions, BBC News reports.

{mosads}Electric cars account for only 5 percent of new registrations in the U.K., according to Reuters.

But the U.K.’s announcement adds more momentum to a European push to end the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

France said earlier this month that it would ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040, and the mayors of several large cities say they want to ban diesel vehicles within a decade as well.

In the United States, analysts project the sale of electric vehicles to overtake those of cars with internal combustion engines within 20 years.