Greenpeace Australia-Pacific campaigner Violette Snow mentioned: “Australia is among the solely international locations on this planet with out gas effectivity requirements to manage local weather air pollution from vehicles.”
“This implies we’re open to previous, out-dated fashions which can be extra extremely polluting.”
Lively lobbying from automotive corporations towards the transition to zero-emissions automobiles continues, the Greenpeace studies notes.
For instance, regardless of buyers’ protests final yr, Toyota lobbied the Japanese authorities to make sure allowances had been made for hybrids in its upcoming financial coverage, permitting them to be counted equally alongside zero-emissions vehicles.
In its report, Greenpeace says Toyota – one of many world’s largest and most trusted automotive producers – additionally has a global observe document of lobbying towards automobile air pollution requirements, and actively working to gradual the uptake of electrical automobiles.
In response, a spokesperson mentioned that Toyota was centered on reaching a long-term and sustainable future because it moved to its final goal of carbon neutrality.
“Carbon is the enemy, and, as the biggest provider of hybrid automobiles in Australia – 290,000 offered since 2001 – Toyota Australia has made a major contribution to decreasing automobile tailpipe emissions on this nation,” Greenpeace mentioned.
Not too long ago, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that automotive business, by way of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, had launched a secret marketing campaign to delay Australia’s transition to electrical automobiles.
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Chamber chief govt Tony Weber mentioned the physique had been calling for a federally led, government-mandated carbon dioxide goal for the light-vehicle sector since 2020.
“We sit up for working with the federal government to develop a plan to scale back automobile emissions,” Weber mentioned.
Australia is among the few international locations within the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth with out nationwide requirements regulating carbon emissions of recent automobiles. The federal authorities is contemplating a nationwide electrical automobile technique, which would come with requirements.
Electrical Automobile Council spokesperson Behyad Jafari mentioned: “Like the remainder of the world, Australia is now lastly having a dialog about transition to ZEV.”
“Sure, there are voices making an attempt to muddy that with dialog … however we have to deal with how we finest encourage Australians to entry the automobiles they clearly need.”
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