Britain is banning all new gas and diesel car sales after 2040

The United Kingdom will ban all sales of new gas- and diesel-powered vehicles beginning in 2040, the British environment secretary, Michael Gove, announced Wednesday. "We can't carry on with diesel and petrol cars," Gove said in a BBC interview. "There is no alternative to embracing new technology."

While demand for low-emission electric and hybrid vehicles is rapidly rising in Britain, they accounted for less than 3 percent of new car sales in the country in 2015. Still, the "timescale involved here is sufficiently long-term to be taken seriously," said David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at the U.K.'s Aston University. Gove's plan includes nearly $2 billion in government spending to incentivize the change.

Germany's Bundesrat in October approved a similar but non-binding ban on production of all new internal combustion engines by 2030; earlier this month, France implemented a binding measure that bans all new gas and diesel car sales. Like the U.K. rule, it takes effect in 2040.

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