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
Please bring back our pollution free rail service. And whatever else you can do to reduce emissions . Sincerely. Hi beams
It is time to legislate fuel efficiency as a minimum to fossil fuel utilization. Please Mr Albanese. This is an easy win to assist the environment
We are so far behind the rest of the western world on vehicle emissions. We must have strong fuel efficiency standards NOW to make cleaner vehicles more available and start to reduce quickly our carbon emissions for our health and for the climate. Zero emissions 2035 with no loopholes, special conditions etc. We must reduce our CO2 emissions as fast as possible.
There are many advantages to having strong fuel efficiency standards- why wait? We don’t have time to wait.
I want my grandchildren to live in a city free of transport emissions, and to have a safe climate.
Please legislate to ensure mandatory standards are set so that by 2035 all new cars bought into Australia have zero emissions.
Its time for Australia to go strong with developed countries to tackle climate change.
I want strong fuel efficiency standards so that car producers will send their most efficient cars to Australia and I can stop polluting with my old petrol car and buy an electric car or a PHEV.
I also want stronger vehicle pollution standards for health reasons and want to see more second-hand electric vehicles imported ASAP.
One strategy for excess pollution is to reduce the time and types of vehicles that are travelling on our roads network.
During peak travel times we could introduce staggering start times for using the network regarding where you come from and where you work.
If you are going to use the networks we should have to ensure your vehicle is a low or zero emission vehicle.
People may need to reconsider their dependence on the massive V6 / v8 vehicles.
Another idea to be considered might be that if you are using the network the vehicles regarding their type should have an annual vehicle safety inspection to minimise the chance of vehicles breaking down and hence causing both delays for commuters either to or from home and again minimising cars unnecessarily creating pollution because of their extended time on the road networks.
Our planet, our future, depends on strong climate action including fuel efficiency. Vehicle use is unlikely to decline significantly so we need to increase fuel efficiency
That’s great that we’re now on the way to strong fuel efficiency standards – but, good grief, we are way behind the developed world! Please Get Cracking Prime Minister on this important change that will mean new cars have zero emissions – I can’t wait to own one!!! Less pollution to inhale and no extra CO2, methane for our planet to inhale! Then can you please truly get cracking on stopping those fossil fuels at their source – no more coal or gas!!!! (A livable future, how good would that be!)
Whilst I am supportive of reducing transportation emissions – according to CSIRO:
Energy production is the largest contributor to Australia’s carbon emissions. This is followed by transport, agriculture, and industrial processes. Specifically:
energy (burning fossil fuels to produce electricity) contributed 33.6 per cent of the total emissions
stationary energy (including manufacturing, mining, residential and commercial fuel use) 20.4 per cent
transport 17.6 per cent
agriculture 14.6 per cent
fugitive emissions 10.0 per cent
industrial processes 6.2 per cent
waste 2.7 per cent.
This means we need to be putting our energy into addressing emissions far more broadly.
Additionally, EV battery production can adversely impact the environment, such as a loss of biodiversity, air pollution and decreased freshwater supply. EV batteries consist of materials like nickel, lithium, cobalt and others, which are energy-intensive to mine.
EV’s cost consumers considerably more money (which the current economy certainly doesn’t support) and the infrastructure is not in place to make them praactical.
Finally, using more electricity also requires burning MORE fossil fuels to produce electricity to run EV’s and energy based emissions already account for the largest producer of emissions at 33%, compared to transport emissions (which encompasses more than just personal vehicles, ie. air traffic) at 17% of total emissions in Australia.
When I moved to Australia from the EU (Ireland) in 2010 I was very surprised to discover that Australia had no emissions standards for road vehicles, unlike the EU where increasing emission standards had already been in place for many years. Now, more than 10 years down the line, Australia is only beginning to explore this possibility. We are now almost unique in the developed world in having no transport emission standards, and the effects on climate policy and pollution are chronic. There is currently no tax disincentive for people to buy inefficient, unnecessarily large-engined vehicles, and car manufacturers are well-known to be sending inefficient vehicles Australia. The take-up of EVs consequently lags behind other developed countries.
It is essential that Australia introduce strict emission controls on all road vehicles, and put in place legislation, as in the EU and other developed countries, to end the purchase of fossil-fuelled vehicles and to actively encourage the take-up of EVs in order to reach emission targets by 2030..
Please deliver strong fuel efficiency standards for Australia to help decrease pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions.
90% of Australian’s can’t afford to put food on table with cost of living, taxes, fuel and all the rest,you people think it’s so easy.
There is no reason that we can’t have cleaner running, more fuel efficient vehicles in Australia. If they can be made for the rest of the world, then they can be made for Australia as well. Implement strict fuel efficiency standards for Australia and the auto industry will supply vehicles that meet them. Maybe use the Californian standards as a guide. You don’t have to put much work into this. It will have two immediate effects, with both the lowering of pollution and the lowering of the bill for importing fuel (which I see as part of a national security issue). Then there will be the flow on effects, such as the greater uptake of EV’s and the improvements to the general health of the population, such as what occurred with the reduction in smoking when that industry was recognized as causing significant adverse health effects.
Australia needs to move forward in technology and health and the reduction of fossil fuel burning will help to promote both.