Transport is Australia's second biggest source of climate pollution, and most of it’s coming from the exhausts of our cars, utes and trucks.
But we can put our vehicle emissions in reverse! Strong fuel efficiency standards now would make cleaner vehicles more available and affordable to more people in Australia and hit the accelerator on taking CO2 off our roads.
Right now the Australian government is asking us in the community for our input on these standards. It's critical that we lend our voices now to make the standards strong enough to clean up our dangerous vehicle pollution.
Make a comment now for strong fuel efficiency standards to be included in an ACF community submission to the Australian government before the Friday 31 May deadline.
What to include in your comment
In your submission, you can mention that you want the standards to:
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Take effect as soon as possible: Have the standards come into effect as soon as possible, which will be mid-2024, so that we reduce transport emissions from light vehicles now.
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Be tough on pollution: Require all new cars sold in Australia to have zero emissions from 2035, which is in line with limiting global heating to a 1.5-degree rise.
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Insure affordability: Ensure that by 2035 all new cars sold in Australia have zero emissions, creating a second-hand market for low-emissions vehicles sooner.
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Be mandatory and rigorous: Legislate the standards, make them mandatory for all manufacturers, and don’t allow accounting tricks like super credits, offsets etc. that stop the genuine reduction of CO2 emissions.
Read more: 'What are fuel efficiency standards?'
Latest Supporters
We can cut transport emissions by a quarter if we increase the average occupancy of our cars from 1.3 to 2 people.
It is scandalous that Australia and Russia are the only developed countries without fuel efficiency standards to limit the carbon dioxide from new vehicles. What a perfect pairing of countries.
Please deliver strong fuel efficiency standards to clean up pollution from our road transport sector. This means requiring all new cars sold in Australia to have zero emissions from 2035.
In order to incentivise uptake of EVs, and at the same time reduce our transport pollution, the government should introduce vehicle emission standards as a matter of urgency. We are one of the few OECD countries without emission standards, and we should not be left behind. High time to catch up on this issue. This will help us achieve zero emissions by 2035 through accelerating electrifying our car transport.
All new cars should be Electric by 2035 and in order to enable a rapid transfer major investments should be made in "refueling"facilities.
The standard of ICE cars should be World’s Best so regulations need to be introduced to enforce standards on new cars sold by manufacturers
Fuel efficiency seems a small step to take to make a big difference to our contribution to clean air. These planetary systems must be given priority over all else at this stage
I lived for 14 years in the US, but in the many towns and cities where I resided there was no pollution on the roads like we have here. Surely in this big land we can manage to get rid of pollution from vehicles. I now live near a busy road where I have got used to the noise, but not the fumes. And what are they doing to my health? I have to close my street-facing windows at peak hour every day. Australia can do better than that for all its citizens.
Please strengthen fuel efficiency standards a.s.a.p. This places a significant onus on car companies to take up the baton of reduced ghg emissions. These efficiency standards should:
~ Take effect as soon as possible: Have the standards come into effect as soon as possible, which will be mid-2024, so that we reduce transport emissions from light vehicles now.
~ Be tough on pollution: Require all new cars sold in Australia to have zero emissions from 2035, which is in line with limiting global heating to a 1.5-degree rise.
~ Insure affordability: Ensure that by 2035 all new cars sold in Australia have zero emissions, creating a second-hand market for low-emissions vehicles sooner.
~ Be mandatory and rigorous: Legislate the standards, make them mandatory for all manufacturers, and don’t allow accounting tricks like super credits, offsets etc. that stop the genuine reduction of CO2 emissions.
Strong fuel efficiency standards are a no-brainer. Australia and Russia are the only countries in the world who don’t have them and I can’t imagine why not.
These new fuel standards need to happen NOW and in line with limiting global heating to a 1.5 degree rise we should ensure that all new cars in Australia have zero emissions from 2035.
I have never bought a new car, no desire to either. My 20 year old petrol car which I bought second hand is not going to last much longer. As a homeless person my car is my home (not literally) and without a car I’m cactus. I am not able to afford a new EV. New legislation for all new cars to have zero emissions will create a second-hand market for EVs.
Dear Prime Minister, please act promptly to introduce the absolutely strongest fuel efficiency standards in order to reduce the impact of fossil fuel emissions as soon as possible. Government needs to use these standards to help increase the sale of EV’s and to force manufacturers to meet strict standards. Australia should NOT be a dumping ground for dirty vehicles from around the world. Please make us world leaders in fuel efficiency vehicles rather than be a wold loser. We/You cannot waste any more time if climate change is going to be contained. Our planet is at grave risk of overheating.
As a civil engineer between jobs and even with my financial situation I would fully support strong vehicle emission standards to drive Australia’s adoption of electric and /or green hydrogen cars. We have stagnated on this for far too long and we need to act now and act strongly.
We need fuel efficiency standards that come into effect as soon as possible, so we can start reducing emissions from transport. All new cars sold in Australia should have zero emissions from 2035 to help limit global heating to 1.5. These standards should be legislated, mandatory and rigorous with no loopholes, so all manufacturers will have to commit to vehicles that genuinely reduce CO2 emissions, as well as other harmful particles that affect air quality and cause negative health effects, which disproportionately affect people with low incomes who live closer to busy roads. Implementing strong fuel efficiency standards as soon as possible will help drive the transition to EVs, and more choice will mean EVs become more affordable and available for all Australians.
Transport is Australia’s second biggest source of climate pollution, and most of it’s coming from the exhausts of our cars, utes and trucks.
We urgently need Strong fuel efficiency standards now would make cleaner vehicles more available and affordable to more people in Australia and hit the accelerator on taking CO2 off our roads.
We need the standards come into effect as soon as possible, which will be mid-2024, so that we reduce transport emissions from light vehicles now.
We need all new cars sold in Australia to have zero emissions from 2035, which is in line with limiting global heating to a 1.5-degree rise.
We need to ensure that by 2035 all new cars sold in Australia have zero emissions, creating a second-hand market for low-emissions vehicles sooner.
We need to legislate the standards, make them mandatory for all manufacturers, and don’t allow accounting tricks like super credits, offsets etc. that stop the genuine reduction of CO2 emissions.
As the former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger said, ‘ pollution is enemy number one, it’s the one thing driving climate change’. If governments don’t act immediately then we are all going to perish. More than 70% of the countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change have done little or nothing about it. What sort of world are our children and grandchildren going to inherit? That is if there is any world left to inherit.
Please strengthen fuel efficiency standards a.s.a.p. This places a significant onus on car companies to take up the baton of reduced ghg emissions. These efficiency standards should:
~ Take effect as soon as possible: Have the standards come into effect as soon as possible, which will be mid-2024, so that we reduce transport emissions from light vehicles now.
~ Be tough on pollution: Require all new cars sold in Australia to have zero emissions from 2035, which is in line with limiting global heating to a 1.5-degree rise.
~ Insure affordability: Ensure that by 2035 all new cars sold in Australia have zero emissions, creating a second-hand market for low-emissions vehicles sooner.
~ Be mandatory and rigorous: Legislate the standards, make them mandatory for all manufacturers, and don’t allow accounting tricks like super credits, offsets etc. that stop the genuine reduction of CO2 emissions.
Australia’s household emissions are reducing but our transport emissions are increasing. It is time for decisive action to reduce emissions. Some carrots to help people give up their cars or buy electric vehicles would help. But also some sticks are needed to stop industrial transport polluting our air. We also need firm targets to plot our progress e.g. all vehicles using renewable energy by 2035.
You must deliver the highest level of fuel efficiency standards, not only to force vehicle manufacturers to deliver best quality vehicles to minimise air pollution and green house gases, but also to make Electric Vehicles more competitive. We gave up our vehicle manufacturing industry and only have a couple of refineries left: so what is the problem??