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London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone, infrastructural populism and the ‘war on drivers’ in the UK

Ed Atkins

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space2026https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544261440814article
AJG 3
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

This paper traces how right-wing populist media have shaped opposition to climate policy in the UK through the analysis of GB News coverage of the expansion of London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in 2023. Although ULEZ was initially introduced as a public health measure for reducing air pollution, it became a political flashpoint through its framing as symbolic of a broader ‘war on drivers’. Drawing on the concept of ‘infrastructural populism’, this paper focuses on GB News coverage discussing the ULEZ scheme to understand this process. Two core narratives are identified. First, the backlash against ULEZ is presented in spatial terms, elevating London’s suburbs as a key site of opposition to the scheme and foregrounding resistance in how ULEZ reordered everyday mobilities in these areas. Second, the ULEZ scheme was positioned beyond its physical infrastructure and, instead, cast as a moral, populist battle with coverage presenting democratic and evidential deficits as part of a ‘war on drivers’. This paper highlights the need to understand contemporary backlash against climate policy as rooted in a growing infrastructural populism that positions new policies as technocratic interventions that reorder everyday life and create both spatial and procedural injustices.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544261440814

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{ed2026,
  title        = {{London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone, infrastructural populism and the ‘war on drivers’ in the UK}},
  author       = {Ed Atkins},
  journal      = {Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544261440814},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.