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Australia should ban gross sales of latest petrol automobiles by 2035 and introduce “world-class” gasoline effectivity requirements inside two years to fulfill its 2050 net-zero emissions goal, a brand new report has warned.
The evaluation from the Worldwide Council on Clear Transport revealed Australia wouldn’t solely miss its local weather targets below the automotive trade’s present voluntary code however petrol automobiles would proceed to “dominate” the native market even previous 2050.
Environmental teams mentioned the report confirmed new laws have been urgently wanted and the automotive trade couldn’t be trusted to set its personal targets.
The report, issued on Tuesday, discovered Australia may minimize 96 % of emissions from gentle autos if it adopted laws already in place in Europe, New Zealand and the US state of California.
These “world-class requirements”, the research mentioned, ought to embrace a ban on new petrol automobile gross sales by 2035 in favor of battery electrical autos, and the introduction of gasoline effectivity requirements to scale back emissions from petrol automobiles earlier than the deadline.
The report’s lead writer, Tanzila Khan, mentioned she urged Australian policymakers to “undertake the world-class requirements beginning no later than 2024” to have an opportunity of assembly its net-zero aim.
But when Australia as an alternative used the prevailing voluntary targets created by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the report discovered, the nation may solely cut back emissions by 35 per cent in 2050.
Petrol automobiles would additionally proceed to “dominate” transport in Australia below this state of affairs, the modeling discovered, making up 68 per cent of the market.
Co-author Zifei Yang mentioned the research proved Australia may considerably cut back carbon emissions if it acted swiftly.
“It is abundantly clear that emission requirements can be efficient in driving important reductions in CO2 emissions from Australia’s fleet,” she mentioned.
Greenpeace Australia senior transport campaigner Lindsay Soutar mentioned the report confirmed Australia had “lots of catching as much as do” to make sure the nation didn’t lag behind different nations.
Passenger automobiles and lightweight industrial autos made up 12 % of Australia’s carbon emissions in 2021, he mentioned, and new legal guidelines have been wanted to scale back them.
“The automobile trade clearly can’t be trusted in relation to regulating emissions from the autos it sells,” Ms Soutar mentioned.
“The present voluntary commonplace would see the automobile market dominated by the sale of fossil fuel-guzzling, pollution-belching petrol autos nicely into the 2050s.”
However chamber chief government Tony Weber defended the trade’s voluntary requirements, which he mentioned have been launched in 2020 within the absence of a authorities coverage.
The requirements sought to scale back emissions from passenger automobiles and “gentle SUVs” by 4 per cent per yr till 2030.
Mr Weber mentioned the group was now working with the federal authorities to develop new gasoline requirements, and warned extra work was wanted to roll out charging infrastructure and guarantee electrical autos met customers’ wants.
“In the end authorities and trade can work on this area however nothing modifications until customers come alongside for the journey,” he mentioned.
“Customers have to be supplied with merchandise they wish to purchase at value factors they will afford (and) merchandise that can meet their wants for work and leisure.”
The federal authorities launched its Nationwide Electrical Automobile Technique session paper in September, which requested questions on gasoline effectivity requirements and petrol automobile bans, and obtained greater than 500 submissions.
The ACT is the one state or territory to announce a ban on petrol and diesel automobile gross sales by 2035 up to now, though vitality big BHP has put ahead the same proposal, and the Committee for Sydney proposed a ban on petrol and diesel autos in 2027.
– AAP
