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Today's News
December 5, 2005: Environmental lobby ignoring the bigger picture on CO2 emissions
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)
UK Auto Industry News
"Environmental lobby ignoring the bigger picture on CO2 emissions"
- SMMT 5th December 2005
The SMMT has reacted with concern to a Friends of the Earth statement calling for increases in tax on 4x4 vehicles, 'whilst seemingly refusing to participate in the nuclear debate'. FOE urged the Chancellor last week to adopt a number of green measures including increasing tax on ‘gas-guzzling" vehicles including 4x4s, and giving cash incentives for motorists to buy greener cars.
Noting that nuclear power has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions significantly from the largest source of man-made carbon dioxide - the energy industries, and that at present these account for around 38 per cent of total output, compared to 22 per cent for road transport, SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan commented: "Nuclear power may or may not be the way forward in terms of energy policy. However, to adopt a "no thanks" policy with its echoes from the cold war era, while berating drivers of 4x4 and SUV vehicles, is quite wrong.
"A full and informed debate on all efforts to cut CO2 across all industries would best serve the environment in the medium and long term."
The SMMT went on to note that as well as average CO2 reductions of around 15 per cent in six years, a modern 4x4 diesel emits just seven per cent of the particulate emissions of a 15 year old saloon. Similarly on air quality NOx emissions, standards for the latest Euro 4 petrol 4x4s are six times as tight as those for a Euro 2 saloon, some of which are as little as five years old.
Will Friends of the Earth and Green Party members, asks the SMMT, be ticketing drivers of older, more polluting saloons, estates and small cars?
Friends of the Earth issued a further release on 4 December accusing the Chancellor of breaking promises over green taxes, saying green taxation had fallen under Gordon Brown, mainly "because Gordon Brown has frozen rates of road fuel duty and VED in recent years. If he had kept road fuel duty and VED at the same percentage of total tax, then these taxes would have raised £5 billion more in 2004. This tax increase could have been used for a number of purposes such as reducing taxes on employment, or boosting investment in sustainable transport alternatives to motoring."
http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/industry_news/05-12-05_7
Topic(s): climate news, Industry News Releases, More Enviro News, Transportation News
Posted By EcoBC
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