The High Court has found that the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) to outlying London boroughs is legal.
Five Conservative-controlled councils filed a legal challenge to the expansion in February.
The scheme will go into effect on August 29 and would tax users of the most polluting vehicles £12.50 per day to use them.
Those behind the idea think that it will encourage people to utilise cleaner transit choices, so improving the city’s air quality.
According to TfL, only a small number of people will be affected, with nine out of ten vehicles meeting ULEZ rules.
The councils, however, contested the scheme’s expansion in court, claiming that the capital’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, had exceeded his legal powers with such a huge expansion of the scheme.
The five local authorities – Hillingdon, Bexley, Bromley, and Harrow in London, as well as Surrey County Council – also said the consultation on the plan was defective, with insufficient information supplied on the scrappage scheme, which pays those willing to sell their vehicles.
While other parts of the challenge were dismissed in April, the councils were granted a hearing in the High Court, and the two sides fought it out over two days of evidence.
The ruling comes a week after the debate around ULEZ dominated a local by-election and the fallout from the results.