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Australia's Gillard Plans Climate-Friendly Car Rebate, Emission Controls
Australia’s Labor government plans to spend A$394 million ($353 million) over the next four years to replace old vehicles with energy-efficient models.
The government also plans to introduce mandatory emission standards for cars from 2015, the ruling Labor party said in an e-mailed statement.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced a program that will from Jan. 1 offer A$2,000 rebates to people who trade in cars manufactured before 1995 for low-emission, fuel- efficient vehicles, according to the statement
“The amount of carbon we anticipate saving through this measure by getting the 200,000 old cars off the road in favor of more efficient vehicles is one million tons,” Gillard said at a news conference in Brisbane broadcast on Sky News.
Cars that have received government designation as fuel efficient and low polluting include Toyota Motor Corp.’s Hybrid Camry and Corolla, Ford Motor Co.’s Falcon EcoBoost, and the Cruze, made by General Motors Co.’s Australian unit Holden.
Gillard, who is facing an election on Aug. 21, replaced Kevin Rudd as leader on June 24 after a slump in support to election-losing levels sparked by his move in April to shelve carbon trading, the mainstay of his 2007 election campaign. Gillard came under fire from climate-change activists yesterday after saying she will delay charging companies for pollution until 2012.
‘Guzzle and Spew’
“Australians own a lot of old motorcars and these old cars guzzle a lot of petrol and spew a lot of pollution,” Gillard said. “I want to help Australians update their motor vehicles.”
The government will fund the rebates by redirecting funds from three programs set up to increase the use of solar power, carbon capture and renewable energy, Gillard said.
The second measure, which will impose mandatory carbon dioxide emission standards on new light vehicles, is expected to save consumers about A$1.8 billion in fuel costs by 2024, or about $600 a year for a typical motorist, the Labor Party said in a separate e-mailed statement.
Emission levels, which will apply to new four-wheeled vehicles weighing 3.5 metric tons or less, will be set after consultation with automakers, according to the statement.
The standards could save 2.6 million tons of carbon dioxide every year, the government said.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott, whose Liberal-National coalition opposes any form of carbon tax on companies, said in Perth today that the government’s industry minister last year dismissed programs such as the old car plan as “wasteful, complicated and unnecessary.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net
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