Diesel vehicles are responsible for nearly 40% of all NO2 emissions in London, a new report of The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a UK-based leftwing think-tank, has revealed.

Supported by Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental organisation, the report highlights the need for implementing new measures for tackling the issue, in order to ensure air pollution is brought to safe levels in the UK capital.

The report suggested that bad quality air is the second most important factor impacting on public health in the capital after smoking.

Greenpeace Senior Air Quality Campaigner Barbara Stoll said: “We welcome Sadiq Khan’s plans to tackle air pollution, but this report shows that we need to go much further and get serious about phasing out diesel cars if we are to stop thousands of Londoners losing their lives to dangerous levels of pollution.

“As a Londoner growing up with asthma, this film speaks to my own experiences as well. I spent long hours going in for checkups and seeing NHS specialists who helped me get on top of the problem.

"This became a large part of my identity and with this campaign we can hopefully work together to make pollution and the entailing health crisis less a part of London’s DNA.”

Currently, London is reported to have breached WHO limits for NO2 and particulate matter, which means 10,000 lives are prematurely lost every year.

"London is reported to have breached WHO limits for NO2 and particulate matter, which means 10,000 lives are prematurely lost every year."

Greenpeace and IPPR have called for cross-party support for radical plan to bring emissions down to legal levels.

They have also proposed measures such as introduction of a charge on all non-zero emissions cars in inner London by 2025, including action on buses, vans and lorries.

To phase out diesel taxis by 2025, reinvested revenues raised by road charging into the public transport network, car sharing, cycling, walking and other sustainable options were also proposed.