According to the National Transport Commission (NTC), new cars and light commercials will need to achieve a 10-fold reduction in carbon emissions by the middle of the century if transport is to play its part in meeting the commonwealth government’s target of an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.
NTC commissioner Frank Muller made the comments while launching the NTC’s report titled ‘Carbon Dioxide Emissions from New Australian Light Vehicles 2011’ at The Cars of Tomorrow conference held recently.
“Industry, consumers and governments all have an important role to play in helping Australia reduce its emissions,” Muller said. “If Australians had made greener purchasing decisions in 2011, carbon emissions from new cars and light commercial vehicles could have been cut by more than one third.”
The NTC’s report provides detailed up-to-date information about carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and light commercial vehicles sold in Australia during 2011.
“During 2011 there was a 2.8 percent reduction in carbon emitted from new vehicles, with a number of manufacturers working to make their vehicles greener,” Frank continued. “There is a tremendous opportunity to build on this progress by continuing to look at ways to encourage Australians to make greener car choices.”
Key findings from the report include:
- In 2011, the national average carbon emissions from new passenger and light commercial vehicles was 206.6 g/km;
- In 2011, 15 manufacturers sold 93 percent of the new light vehicles in Australia. Of these manufacturers, Suzuki had the lowest average corporate emissions (161 g/km) and Nissan the highest average corporate emissions (226 g/km);
- In 2011, the average emissions from Australian-made light vehicles was 230 g/km. This represents a 6.9 percent reduction from 2010;
- While there were more green vehicles available for sale in 2011, these vehicles were not amongst the best selling vehicles.
The NTC has reported the carbon dioxide emissions of new cars and light commercial vehicles for the past three years to provide a transparent benchmark on how Australia’s vehicle emissions are tracking.
The latest report is available on the NTC website: http://www.ntc.gov.au/viewpage.aspx?AreaId=36&DocumentId=2283