No value judgement here, but how else would you enforce it?

More cops! More traffic stops and checkpoints! More inspections and fees!

No wait fuck nobody likes any of that.

Okay what about buyback programs. What about trade ins. What about tax breaks and government subsidies for buying newer vehicles with less hem fuel emissions? What if instead of paying to enforce a law, you paid to change the conditions that lead to the problems that the law was created to address in the first place?

Every tax break is a tax increase for someone else. Buying polluting vehicles would encourage people to buy harmful things because they would expect the government would eventually pay them off (or equivalently would discourage people from buying less polluting vehicles early, lest they miss out on a bailout).

> Okay what about buyback programs

Already in place.

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/scr...

Is that more Orwellian than say anti-theft camera systems or red light cameras at stoplights?

It depends on who controls the cameras, but yes generally every added means of surveillance by a centralized power takes us closer to an Orwellian society.

anti-theft cameras less so, because they are controlled by individual people, but as seen with Ring doorbells, the government can still access them, so it's pretty creepy.

Seems about on par to me