Nice, Cannes and nearby towns bring in Crit'Air pollution car stickers
Six communes of the Alpes-Maritimes join other parts of the country imposing traffic restrictions based on mandatory Crit'Air certificates for all vehicles
Nice is one of six communes introducing traffic restrictions to combat pollution.
Pavel Suhov / Shutterstock
The Nice-Côte d’Azur area has joined the list of low emission zones in France where entry will be limited to vehicles rated Crit’Air 4 or over.
The Crit’Air rating is a mark out of five indicating how much pollution a vehicle produces. Older and more polluting vehicles have a higher number.
Owners need to apply for a Crit’Air certificate that comes in the form of a round sticker with a number from zero to five which must be displayed on the vehicle’s windscreen.
Paca pollution alerts
During a pollution alert, access to Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Vallauris, Cagnes-Sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-Du-Var will be restricted from 6:00 to 20:00 for vehicles rated 4 or 5 - or unclassified.
“There won't be that many, about two or three days a year”, Sébastien Mathiot, engineer for AtmoSud, the air quality observatory in the Paca region, told France 3.
How to get a Crit’Air sticker
You can apply for your Crit’Air certificate online by visiting the official government website (available in English) and paying the fee of €3.67.
If you would prefer to complete a paper form and apply by post, you can download this here. Remember to include a cheque by way of payment.
For those who do not have access to the internet, you can purchase your air quality certificate from the mairie instead.
Crit’Air vehicle ratings
Depending on the air pollutants emitted by your vehicle, it will be assigned a rating: 1 - 3 means you will be able to travel without restriction, but 4 or 5 or unclassified means you will not be able to drive on level 2 pollution alert days.
Travelling without a sticker or in an unauthorised vehicle during these periods risks a fine of €68 for light vehicles or €135 for HGVs.
The aim of the scheme is to reduce the amount of pollution emitted by cars with transport accounting for 40% of fine particle emissions in the department.
You can keep an eye on the air quality in the region via the Atmosud website.
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