Australia plans to adopt an automotive green fuel standard

Photo by: gerenme / Stock

In a campaign to decarbonise transport, the Australian government has officially opened a call for views on how exactly it should implement widespread use of electric cars and other forms of green transport by citizens. Feedback is being accepted until the end of October.

Australia’s lack of robust vehicle fuel economy standards is considered a gaping hole in transport decarbonisation policy and a major barrier to the introduction of electric vehicles. Yet already more than 80% of the global automotive market has green vehicle fuel standards, including the European Union, US, UK, China, Japan, Brazil, India, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. These vehicle fuel economy standards set emission limits and apply to all classes of vehicles.

The pre-survey document states that Australia’s lack of an automotive green fuel standard puts the country behind the curve, as it is forced to use other people’s cleaner cars and fuels. The introduction of fuel efficiency standards for vehicles should encourage the development of an electric vehicle market and help reduce emissions.

The Driven reports that past attempts to legislate standards or even discuss the idea of green fuels in earnest have been blocked by car industry lobby groups. The media has dubbed the idea a ‘carbon tax on wheels’.

Electric Vehicle Council CEO Behyad Jafari called the introduction of a strict fuel efficiency standard “the most urgent next step” in Australia’s electric vehicle strategy. “It’s like a breath of fresh air when the federal government is taking this issue so seriously, acting on national policy in the early months of its administration.”

Jafari added: “Australia can certainly be an electric car empire, employing Australians to build and sell them. But we are not realising these opportunities as long as our standards lag behind the rest of the world”. “Right now we were at the end of the global queue for new cars,” he said.

The relevance of adopting a green car fuel standard in Australia stems from the fact that the country currently lags far behind the rest of the world in the adoption of electric vehicles. Worse still, as the consultation document notes, Australia is now the country with the highest emissions in the world, with new passenger cars in the country producing around 40% more emissions than in Europe. Decarbonising Australia’s vehicle fleet is necessary to meet the country’s climate change targets.

Cover photo: phaustov / iStock