Driving bans for diesel cars in German cities: The role of ENGOs and Courts in producing an unlikely outcome

Driving bans for diesel cars have been adopted, are looming or have been narrowly avoided in 41 major German cities as of April 2021. This paper analyses this highly unlikely outcome of a political process that began in 2010 by addressing a number of causal factors and qualifying the weight and the way in which they contribute to the overall result. First, in the category of institutions, there are the European Ambient Air Quality Directive and the right of environmental associations to sue; second, the striking failure to adopt alternative measures to significantly reduce NO 2 concentration; third, in the category of actors there is the Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) utilizing the right to take legal action in its “fight for clean air” as well as the German administrative courts which handled the legal cases filed by the DUH by placing great emphasis on health protection and compliance with European law.