Australia’s new fuel efficiency standard falls short

From July next year, all new cars must abide by Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard.

This legislation will require the motor industry to cap carbon emissions. Weakened after rounds of consultation with the auto industry, the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard will only apply to cars sold between July 2025 and December 2029 – excluding cars already on the road.

Robin Smit, Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, argues there is insufficient detail to fully understand how the emission reductions will be assessed.

In Australia, emissions and sales data is controlled by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. This data is not publicly accessible, unlike in the European Union.

To understand exactly how the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard will operate, the Transport Energy/Emission Research (TER) consultancy completed a peer-reviewed and independent expert study to evaluate the effectiveness.

This study found that the new standard will significantly reduce emissions from light vehicles sold in Australia from July 1 2025. However, the new standard will allow manufacturers to create and trade emission credits. If a certain manufacturer is overachieving, they can carry over credits to another year, or alternatively, sell them to an underachieving manufacturer.

Additionally, light commercial vehicles (like vans and utes) are to abide by a less stringent target than regular passenger vehicles. This may encourage the trend towards larger vehicles, ultimately making it harder to reduce emissions.

Smit argues that these factors may significantly undermine the standard. 

Some improvements are necessary to make the standard more robust, better guarantee its effectiveness and prevent the internationally well-known pitfalls and loopholes in vehicle emission standards. They include adoption of an up-to-date test protocol and including-on board fuel consumption monitoring, as is done overseas.

While the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, the effectiveness of legislation is yet to be seen.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.