The Australian Government may be planning to introduce mandatory standards to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from passenger vehicles by 2015, after releasing a discussion paper outlining the key issues.
The planned standards will complement its carbon price scheme and help to reduce emissions although the paper does not set targets – it simply asks industry and the community to help shape the new standards by joining the debate. The views received will help the Department of Infrastructure and Transport to develop a Regulatory Impact Statement that will be formally released for public comment.
According to the Government, it is in the country’s best interests to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at or below 450 parts per million and it has outlined near-term targets to reduce economy-wide emissions by at least five per cent on 2000 emission levels by 2020, and from 15-25 per cent depending on other nations. Then in July, it announced its Clear Energy Future plan to reduce CO2 emissions across all sectors of the economy.
Currently, transport produces around 15 per cent of Australia’s CO2 emissions; with light duty vehicles contributing 64 per cent of that number. The average level of CO2 emissions of the new light vehicle fleet in 2010 was just under 213g/km, with the average in the passenger car segment being 205g/km.
The discussion paper suggests that regardless of national and regional differences all major vehicle producing countries are attempting to reduce CO2 emissions over the short-medium term and the level of these reductions is far greater than in a non-regulatory environment. Now the Australian Government wants to introduce mandatory carbon emission standards from 2015 that are consistent with these international trends.
Among the key issues outlined in the paper are: what is a reasonable target for Australia; should there be single or staged targets; what is the appropriate base year; what are the costs and benefits; how should the target be calculated; and what legislation is required?
