According to a new report the Climate Change Authority (CCA) has found Australian motorists could save thousands of dollars in fuel costs and significantly cut carbon pollution by 2030 through the introduction of mandatory emissions standards for light vehicles.
Light vehicles, deemed to be less than 3.5 tonnes in weight, are one of Australia’s greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about one-tenth of the nation’s total.
The CCA report says Australia could almost double the fuel efficiency of its new vehicle fleet by 2025 by introducing mandatory emissions standards for light vehicles.
The new report says that improving the efficiency of light vehicles is one of the least costly emissions reduction options available to Australia.
Passenger and light commercial vehicles contribute 10 per cent of Australia’s emissions.
In its report, Light vehicle emissions standards for Australia, the Authority argues that a mandatory standard is the best policy for improving the efficiency of the light vehicle fleet.
Australia is unusual in the developed world in not having mandatory emissions or fuel economy standards.
Up until now that has partly been due to the fact that the cars Australia’s has built are amongst the most polluting in the world, but with the planned close down of the Australian car manufacturing industry that point has become less relevant.
The new CCA report says the United States, Canada, the EU, Japan and Korea all have mandatory standards.
China and India also have mandatory standards, and both have more efficient passenger vehicle fleets than Australia.
The Authority proposes that the first phase of mandatory standards be introduced with effect from 2018, by which time local manufacture of automobiles is expected to have ceased.
The standards would progressively reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new light vehicles to 105g/km in 2025, almost half the current level of 192g/km.
“This 2025 standard would broadly bring Australia into line with the United States, but still trail the tighter European Union targets by several years,” according to the head of the CCA Bernie Fraser.
It was proposed that the targets would be set as an average across the fleet as a whole, rather than be applied to individual vehicles, Mr Fraser said in a statement.
This fleet-average approach would preserve customer choice in the purchase of light vehicles.
Implementation of a standard to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 105g/km is estimated to increase the average cost of a new car in 2025 by about $1500.
However, this would be offset several times by fuel savings of about $8500 over the life of the vehicle, leaving motorists better off, Mr Fraser said.
The proposed standard is projected to avoid 59 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the period to 2030, equivalent to the current annual emissions of all light vehicles.
Mr Fraser said the details of the standard would be a matter for the government of the day to finalise but the CCA had identified some possible best-practice design features
These included coverage of new passenger and light commercial vehicles under a single standard flexible compliance mechanisms to reduce regulatory costs, including ‘banking’ and limited ‘borrowing’ of compliance credits using existing testing processes, to minimise regulatory burdens financial penalties for non-compliance.
The Authority has also suggested that a review be held in 2021 to consider the operation of the scheme, and to recommend new national average standards for a second phase, which would begin after 2025.
Mr Fraser said that the proposed standard was a win-win for the environment and for motorists.
He expressed the hope that the proposal would be embraced by the major political parties and even mark the beginning of a necessary broad political consensus on effective climate change policy.
The CCA is an independent body established by the former Labor government to provide advice on Australia’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, and the current conservative Liberal-National government has been seeking to abolish it.
However, Clive Palmer, the leader of the Palmer United Party has said his party will move to save the authority, along with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Target as part of its support for repeal of Australia’s carbon price laws.