If Mayor Sadiq Khan's plan goes ahead, London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will become one of the world's largest to tackle air pollution, encompassing 5 million extra people in the capital's leafier and less-connected outer boroughs.
London's transport authority says only one in 10 cars in outer London are not ULEZ-compliant.
But Khan, who was diagnosed with asthma and wrote a book this year on air pollution and climate change, says he is determined to face down his critics.
"But the further away from the city centre you go, the less you can improve air quality," Verbeek added.
"It's absolutely critical that even in a cost-of-living crisis we do not kick the can of air pollution down the road and let more children grow up unhealthy and unwell," she said.
Persons:
Toby Melville, Sadiq Khan's, Carl Cristina, Cristina, Khan, Thomas Verbeek, Verbeek, Jemima Hartshorn, Teresa O'Neill, I've, Gavin Jones, William James, Andrew Heavens
Organizations:
REUTERS, Reuters, Delft University of Technology, Thomson
Locations:
Marble, London, Britain, Europe, Rome, Netherlands