France To 'Ban All Petrol And Diesel Vehicles By 2040'

France plans to outlaw all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, its new environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, has announced.

It will also ban any "new project to use petrol, gas or coal", as well as shale oil, by 2040.

The radical measure were unveiled at a press conference this morning as part of French president Emmanuel Macron's plans to make France a carbon neutral country by 2050 and "make the planet great again".

Mr Hulot, a former star wildlife TV presenter, announced "the end of the sale of petrol or vehicles between now and 2040."

The French will in the meantime be offered financial incentives to scrap their polluting vehicles for clean alternatives, he said. Concretely, "the government will offer each French person a bonus to replace their diesel car dating before 1997 or petrol from before 2001 by a new or second-hand vehicle," he said.