Carbon Emissions Report – Australia way behind
November 23, 2009 by Alborz Fallah
The National Transport Commission (NTC) today released the ‘Carbon Emissions from New Australian Vehicles’ report, and its data shows that Australia is a long way behind European countries in terms of CO2 emissions.
Last year just 0.6 per cent of total sales in Australia were ‘green’ cars (those whose emissions do not exceed 120g/km), compared to the United Kingdom’s 11 per cent.
Only seven of these ‘green’ vehicles were available in Australia in 2008.
Overall, Australia’s carbon emissions from new passenger vehicles were 41 per cent higher than the European Union – 215g/km compared to 153g/km.
Compared to the EU – where 52 per cent of vehicles sold were diesels – diesel made up just 12 per cent of total sales in Australia in 2008.
NTC safety and environment general manager, Tim Eaton, said the report showed there was a great possibility for Australia to further reduce emissions.
“This [report] highlights an important opportunity for industry, governments and the community to make better decisions around light vehicle purchasing and develop policy responses to this challenge.”
The report showed that if Australians purchased new vehicles with best-in-class emissions, the national average would be 34 per cent lower (146g/km).
Across the board, the national average CO2 emissions from new passenger and light commercial vehicles in 2008 were 222g/km – a 12 per cent reduction from 2002.
For the first eight months of 2009, average CO2 emissions have fallen further to 219g/km, a result that Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries CEO, Andrew McKellar, was pleased with.
“The report confirms the industry is ahead of schedule in meeting the existing target of 222g/km CO2 by 2010.
“The industry has achieved a 12 per cent reduction in emissions in six years, but the work has not stopped and new technology is being continuously rolled out to further improve this result,” he said.
McKellar said the study provided a valuable snapshot of new vehicle emissions and would be useful as the industry and the government consider future strategies for continued progress.
However, he emphasised that the task of reducing emissions involved more than simply buying fuel efficient vehicles.
“It is important to remember that any move to significantly reduce real-life vehicle emissions must also look at the existing vehicle fleet, road congestion and public transport,” McKellar said.
The report showed that 15 manufacturers sell 95 per cent of new vehicles in Australia, and of those, Hyundai had the lowest average emissions (177g/km) while Holden had the highest (252 g/km).
In 2008, the average emissions from Australian-made vehicles were 267g/km – a 4 per cent reduction from 2005.
The report also explained the measures in place in the EU that have reduced CO2 emissions.
For manufacturers, the threat of government regulation for corporate CO2 emissions led to the carmakers reducing the average emissions of their vehicles.
For consumers, taxing petrol more heavily and having lower taxes on diesel encouraged the purchase more fuel-efficient and diesel cars.
The report also said vehicle excise duties and direct cash incentives for consumers to purchase low emitting vehicles encouraged more people to buy them, and emphasised the importance of emissions labels on vehicles, a measure that Australia already has in place.
Print it: 
The report is right – we are behind – way behind, with our (non mandatory) target of 222g/km. In places like France – which has high car ownership and substantial distances a 225 g/km car cops the maximum registration fee penalty of 3500 Euros – more than A$5500! To avoid any penalty you need to be around 150g/m – under that you get a bonus!
Tax the petrol! Tax the owners of older cars! Double tax the more efficient cars from europe and asia to encourage the local car industry, to uh, keep the local car prices higher than 90% of the world so no Australians can afford to run the local guzzlers! Make low emissions cattle and force the farmers to till their soil behind a low emissions bull! And don’t forget to give people with hybrids carbon credits they can sell to the coal powerstation so that it doesn’t need to clean up it’s emissions at all! Mwahahahahaha!
They’re wrong – we are world leaders in providing all the plants of the world more food (CO2) than any other country – what a great place we live in!
To help the cause I think I’ll trade in the wifes measly 6 cylinder for a V8 thereby maximising our family contribution to the feeding of plantlife on planet Earth – I feel like a philanthropist………..
co2 is what plants breath in not eat.
Yes plants do grow quicker the higher the co2 levels up to the saturation point. I think we’ve already past this point
right there with ya Rick. I’m gonna idle my car all day long to help “save the plants” :-)
What a farce…..I can’t believe people write this stuff and people listen to it. Let’s have some more details please.
How many cars are registered in Europe currently compared to Australia ?
How many kilometres on average do vehicles travel in Europe compared to Australia ?
While we are at it let’s ask how many volcanoes erupted spewing out CO2 last year as well and compare that to Australia’s car emissions CO2 as well !!
If you are going to do a report like this do a report that contains the total emissions picture not simply emissions per vehicle. Let’s compare apples to apples so we can see what the bulk emissions are per country.
I know just for a laugh let’s compare vehicle emissions in Europe to say….China or….India or…..USA. Why exactly is this being compared to Australia ?
Blimey people make up your own minds on what car you drive this isn’t a communist state you know.
Your right Westy! How ca you compare France to Australia (70+ million compared to 22 million)?
Ur absolutely right Westy. Australia has many more facots that are worse than cows such as the fact that we supply a lot of the worlds beef and cows tend to fart quiet a bit.
Comparing on a per Capita basis is comparing apples with apples. Unlike comparing cars with volcanoes!! Just accept it of course we’re behind. Our car industry is predominantly controlled by the US, our economy is underpinned by the coal industry what do you expect?
lazybones,
But all I want it to get the actual full amount of CO2 emmissions committed by each nation or Europe vs Australia. Whatever. This will give the true indication of who is polluting and who needs to pull their heads in. Comparing per capita in this case simply doesn’t tell the full story. Give us the full complement of statistics not just the ones designed for scare mongering.
If you were to compare per capita then India and China would look like climate saints next to us.
According to the IEA per country by tonnes Co2:-
China (6.0bn)
USA (5.8bn)
Europe (5.4bn)
Australia (0.4bn)
Per Capita
Qatar (58.01)
UAE (29.91)
Luembourg (22.35)
United States (19.10)
Australia (18.75)
Europe (7.48)
China (4.57)
Its not about scare mongering. Everyone needs to do their bit to slow down the effects. Per Capita is the best way of showing the overall efficiency.
So we should be unfairly disadvantaged for what purpose exactly ?
The total number for Australia is starkly low compared to the big 3 polluters USA, China and Europe and you add up their population and use per capita but for example how many of the over 1 billion people in China actually have a car ? So the numbers are skewed in my opinion.
It should be an average of per car owner rather than per capita otherwise we are including people without vehicles in this equation which is a false statistic. It is so blatantly broad based it doesn’t fit with logic. Makes for some sensational reporting. Should people without cars be taxed or disadvantaged accordingly even if they don’t own one ??
It’s just amazing that people can provide these lovely stats but if you look at the detail it doesn’t stack up. We AREN’T a major contributor to pollution compared to the rest of the world. The totals by tonnes you have shown demonstrates this fact. I agree with your sentiment that each person can do his bit but why target Australia that emits such a small amount of pollution in TOTAL compared to the rest of the world. This should be an article having a go a China, Europe and USA for emitting so much in TOTAL. That’s where the real gains can be made to make any difference if that’s what you want.
A good example in the overall scheme of things let’s say Australia cuts its pollution by 50% tp 0.2billion. What is that in net percentage terms when Europe, China, USA and in fact the rest of the world are still emmitting the same amount. The answer is negligible.
It’s compared per capita
They wouldn’t understand “Per Capita”.
Cupid Stunt,
What exactly have you added to the commentary here so far that isn’t insults ?? Thank God we left either forced or unforced from the motherland all those hundreds of years ago if this is what we would have turned out like !!
Methane is a bad greenhouse gas,so i bet Europe produces more Human methane than us by a long way,maybe they can cut back on the mettwursts and the pastrys.
That’s coming from a nation of pie eaters!!!!
Come on now we are 21 million they are hundreds of milions their output is many hundreds times ours.
No wonder these people are buying these vehicles when fuel is around $7au a litre in places.
These vehicles are so unreliable and cost a fortune not for me not yet anyway.
Stop worring about our carbon emissions as we have more than enough trees to compensate the problem at the moment.
Plant more trees on the footpath insted of conrete.
It’s no wonder we are so far behind. The poster boys for environmentally friendly local made cars are the V6 SIDI, and 6.0 litre V8 AFM Commodores!
Haha, I was wondering why a picture of a commodore snuck in amongst all the diesels and hybrids
Lets Govern the Plebs by taxing the hell out of one of their biggest necessities, a car!
In Europe not everyone requires a car, they have superior public transport, denser housing and more business districts. If people need to travel large distance its cheaper, quicker and easier to go by train or fly. It is obvious that a country as vast and big and rural as Australia has different needs for individual/family transport compared to Europeans. We live a different lifestyle, families prefer to live further from CBD’s on a block of land ( the Aussie dream).
Our model is more akin to the Americans hence big cars, driving holidays, towing etc. Micro or Hybrid cars do not fill this void or the majority of the Australian lifestyle hence indicated by the sales figures.
All these surveys and reports are a crock that gives the government control by influencing that the guilt tax is somehow going to save the world!
We are doing our part as the trend has been toward down sizing the average car, if a single person with a social life that is predominantly the corner coffee shop sipping Lattes than yes a ‘Trend’ car is suitable other wise the fossil fueled guzzlers will continue to rule.
Gilly,
Well said. Not only that the modern cars fuel efficiency and also CO2 emmissions are improving all the time. It’s not like the manufacturers are standing still and you have made a great point about the requirements in OZ differing to Europeans. I still want a someone to give me the TOTAL output of CO2 for each party here ie. EUROPE and OZ.
Figures for 2006:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_w.....f-co2.html
Looking at the figures Australia is about 7% of China or the US, so where are global gains to be made?
“If people need to travel large distance its cheaper, quicker and easier to go by train or fly.”
Whaaaat – If I train to London from home it costs £240 return. I can drive it for 2/3 of a tank at about £45.
If I fly to Manchester its about £220, driving costs £40 of fuel. Get your facts right.
Ok I take back my previous comment about not adding anything useful…..you have added something here. So you are saying we should drive more as public transport or flying is too dear. Excellent idea and I second that.
I don’t know why cars destroying the environment demands so much media attention. Here is a fact for you all: world wide, cars only emit 7% of all emissions. Of course Australia is behind, just look at what you build and buy here (Commodore, Falcon, Territory, Aurion), but there are so many other major contributing factors that make up the other 93% that just seem to be ignored.
What about the livestock industry? That accounts for about a third of all emissions. That’s significant, but nobody seems to care all that much because they like to eat meat, which is exactly why the people who blame cars only look at them as machines that go from A to B.
The environment needs a certain level of co2 to remain lively.
Surely there is some sort of healthy ratio with co2 in our environment, I dont know what it might be (does someone know??), but what I do know is our environment certainly isnt unhealthy.
This is about scaring the community to a point where we will be controlled more and more like little pawns.
The Government has very clever ways of controlling us, if its not hearding us with taxes or incentives, its scare mungering with terrorism, water and oil shortages or the fear of choking to death in poor air quality.
Another thing with the switching to diesel angle that not a lot of people realise is whilst diesel emitts less co2, it in return puts our something like 90% more stuff that is responsible for bad health conditions such as cancer.
There rarely is any clear win at the moment with advancing fuel types.
with one plus there is usually an equivalent negative……
oh and CHECK MATE…….us little pawns are F*cked either way
Andrew M,
You are spot on with one more point to add to your commentary….people have lost the art of common sense. It is such a forgotten art that people should actually have to start thinking for themselves. Instead of believing everything that is put in front of them. I say do some research yourselves first and be properly informed. It may just wake everyone up however it will be waaaay to late by then but hey, over governance is now the norm rather than the exception.
Well said Westy!
Yes Andy the enviroment needs Co2 and over the last 100’s of thousands of years its always been below 300ppm, whats scary is not just the fact its at about 385ppm. But the rate is going up is increasing. So despite all the efforts we’re making the number is still not slowing because we’re not doing enough. And i’m with you on the diesel argument.
As for our environment “Isn’t unhealthy”, are you kidding. Haven’t you notice how many weather records we break every year? Our great barrier reef is bleaching, The Maldives is in a state of emergency because it will soon disappear. This is all fact not conspiracy. Just do your homework. Who are we going to bitch to when our coastline starts to vanish? in 50 years the great ocean road will be a boat trip.
lazybones,
Now that is scaremongering and that has been around for years. I remember during the 80’s we were given that same tripe that within the next 10 years our coastlines would be inundated because of CFC use and the greenhouse effect. Have a guess what those coastlines are still the same as they were back in the 80’s. (People also seem to think that coastlines are made of unerodable objects against the motion of waves.Coastlines have changed forever and will continue to change) What does this then tell us about the power of the media. Well it means we can all be made to believe anything especially if you don’t just use some common sense on all this hype. People should NOT be worried about warming but in fact should be worried about cooling (ie Ice Age). Nothing will survive an ice age.
Also on your weather records that’s what records are for and that is to be broken. To suggest Earth is a static ecosystem and should always be static is not logical. The weather unfortunately is not something any of us can control. To think we can is quite frankly, silly (In my opinion).
Weather records based on what????
Weather records arent old enough to prove a true trend.
I have done my homework on the subject, ill have to try and dig up some quotes to prove my side, but in summary what I have found in the past is that on available records, if anything the planet has experienced a slight cooling trend over the last 20 years.
Also even though I dont care much for the validity of surveys, I did in the past find one that concluded out of the many scientists that make a living out of studying the climate, something like 25% believe Global warming is a real thing.
And of those 25% that believe Global warming isnt mythical, I think it was something like 95% of them believe Humans have caused it or are responsible.
One thing I feel not a lot of people realise often enough is that the climate operates on a massive cycle.
Sure the ice caps are melting, cant argue with that, they have data to prove it, What we can argue with is the cause.
One thing to be considered is that we are still coming out of an Ice age.
Just because the ice is melting doesnt mean the planet is getting warmer and warmer. Say you put a cup of water (ocean) in the blast freezer (simulating ice age).
Now put that frozen cup in to a room temperature environment (out of the ice age).
Now that cup of ice will begin to melt, and it will melt faster and faster as the day goes on. This doesnt mean the day keeps getting hotter and hotter, it means the cup of ice (representing our earth) is just coming back to normal.
Many years ago Australia had ocean right through the guts of it.
Now I dont claim to be any sort of scientist, I simply claim that I dont believe everything I hear, and that I use my common sense.
And back to weather records, I love the bit where the media will hype up a hot spell we get in our weather.
They normally imply the truth behind global warming is proven because this is the hottest day we have had in 60 years……….
When I hear that stuff I laugh.
Hottest in 60 years???? well isnt that proof that we normally get these hot spells.
If we are only repeating a weather pattern that happened 60 years ago then wouldnt our climate be normal???
Lazybones,
Thanks for coming up with some actual figures……
At the same time its good to have the actual figures at hand, we must make sure we interperate them correctly and look at them in a relative manner.
Just to clear things up, is that 385ppm the world figure???? if so its irrelevant to the argument that Australia has a problem.
If it is Australias figure, there has to be an international figure to compare it to other wise its irrelevant.
Also showing co2 emissions per capita is useless.
We are trying to relate the emissions to the environment, not an individual.
Relating co2 to m2 of land or overall air content is at least relevant.
Sure per capita we might be getting up there, but here in Oz we have more space to swing our arms per person. once again I would have to check current figures, but as an example, say china has 1 acre of land per person.
Now say Australia has 3 acres of land per person. If you divvy that up, effectively for us to be as poluting as China, we would need to emmitt 3 times as much crap into the air.
Everyone talks about the bad stuff, whilst not considering the stuff that offsets it
I agree this is a topic we should at least be aware of (air quality) but to think we are stuffing this planet is silly
Yes PPM figure would be a world figure since we share the atmosphere. I don’t think the article is actually blaming Australia for polluting the world. Its mearly pointing out we’re behind. Which is obviously true. As for checking weather figures you should take a look at the govenment website for some resonable quality data (http://www.climatechange.gov.a.....ature.aspx).
Breaking records that are 60 years old is ok if its happening every 60 years. Currently we’re breaking multiple records every year.
Personally I think Australia is in one of the best positions to benefit from a world ETS. Low population, large land mass, and huge quantities of free energy delivered daily, a massive coastline for potiential wave power. Australia should be a world leader in renewables.
Hey, dont get me wrong, im all for renewables and sustainability etc, my whole point is wandering why we should be taking people/countries etc to the sword over it…..
Are you able to answer my previous question in relation to what ppm is considered healthy air???
Increased co2 will actually promote growth!!!!!
What happens if we totally turn about face and end up with zero co2 being added to our atmosphere??? thats worse!!!!
whether or not we are behind other countries on this subject really depends on which stats you are looking at and what you want to break it down into.
for eg if you add up the volume of atmosphere over a particular country, then divide our emissions into it, we are probably smacking the world silly with our targets.
I know its no excuse for us to spew stuff into the air, but here in OZ we can afford to.
Its like a person with an active job or whatever can afford to have an extra pie for lunch, where as someone who isnt active cant afford to.
the person who is active will burn it off in the same way our atmosphere will cope with our emissions easier than say China
I did answer your question in my post. Over the last 400,000 years the Co2 readings have been between 175-300PPM according to the antartica icecore data. The idea isn’t to get to zero Co2 emissions per capita, the idea is to cut emissions to a normal level, even if there were no humans on earth there would be Co2 emissions.
Unfortunately the effort to reduce emissions has to be a world one and if we do nothing who is going to listen to our side of things at the various world summits?
No you havent, I asked for Australias readings with out the rest of the world dragging us down….
They must find it difficult….those who have taken authority as the truth,rather than truth as the authority. – G.Massey,Egyptlogist
People, carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant. We need it to survive! In addition, 95% of greenhouse effect is caused by water vapour which exists in far larger quantities in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. The warming effect of carbon dioxide, both natural and man-made is only 3.6%. Shouldn’t we then be measuring water vapour emissions?
WATCH THESE 2 VIDEOS,A MUST SEE http://www.infowars.com/alex-r.....ru-emails/
A video thats sooo bad its good!! Since when did we ever trust hackers? How do we know the emails are legit and not edited, a bit like the utegate scandal that p*ssed of Turnbull. And lets face it, are we saying there is no corruption whatsoever in the UN, our government the US government (WMD\’s anyone?). To my mind there is no large body or Company that doesn\’t have some form of corruption or scandal not even the Church.
Sorry i forgot that if its not on channel 9 then it must be bullsh-t.oh by the way didn’t we hear about WDM from the mainstreem media,which all turned out to be BS.
No i’m a Foxtel guy NatGeo/Discovery being my favorites since you appear to be interested. The WMD claim came from US Intelligence not the media, nor channel 9 or Tracey Grimshaw.
Keep in mind you posted the video, I watched and posted my comment. Simple. The retarded yank on the youtube video who is looking for the smoking gun so he can make a case for doing nothing. And is just hoping the climate problem will just all just go away.
lazy – So US intelligence came to your house Knocked on your door to inform you that Iraq had WMDs,LOL just keep your head glued to nickelodeon
Yeah right, So you trying to tell me that the media is responsible for WMD claims, climate change etc. But yet you think a ranting yank on YouTube is some how reputable or a “MUST SEE” media content. I think watching Nickleodeon my be the best advice you’ve given.
NO im not denying that the initial news came from U.S.I,but were did you here it from???
What a pathetic bunch we are. Of course we all love cars otherwise we wouldn’t be reading this blog. But however much we deny the fact there is a global warning problem, which our cars contribute to, so we ought to cut the emissions from our beloved cars. It can be done. Does a single sales rep with a PDA and an order book really need nearly 2 tonnes of car to do the rounds? Do government departments and councils need big cars or can a small car suffice? Look at the number of fleets runnung cars like Toyota Yaris or Hyundai I30. Can we do the school run in diesel rather than petrol SUVs? Is there not enough fun factor in a VW GTI? Just watch what is coming out of Europe – high performance low emission vehicles.
The newly hyped SIDI Commodore is greener than the diesel i30.
That shows how blindly every one thinks
Who would have thought the much bagged Commodore is greener than prossibly every diesel on the market???
Well said.
…or, lazybones, the Climate Change clergy it seems! The “flat earthers” of centuries past used the same approach to science and reasoning as you people are now.
Science is never a closed shop and encourages debate/challenges on any theory. None of that going on at the moment. Then again it is human nature to want to believe we can control everything in our world. Gives us some security to think that it’s always up to us. Meanwhile what are we doing about the real pollution poisoning our environment.
Well said. The debate is entirely one sided to aid certain powerful people making a veritable fortune out of this so called environmental catastrophe. I will stick to my common sense and take all facts on board not just the ones fed to me via sensationalist media outlets.
Thats right ozedude, we should do nothing because GOD will save us….. :)
“Science is never a closed shop and encourages debate/challenges on any theory”
Spot on, thats why I fart in the face of religion. Anyone who watches “An Inconvient truth” should also watch “The Great climate swindle”.
“What a pathetic bunch we are”
Yup, we’re all scared that if the greenies get their way. The only cars we’ll drive in the future will be hampster powered, single seat shopping scooters…..with large 20″ rims, taco + shift light, and a blacked out rain cover.
Acurrent affair,I think thats what you watch.
What an absolute LOAD OF COW SHEET….full of BS this is….
There’s a lot of arguments back and forth to why this is an important issue or not, on how little Australian efforts would matter in the whole scheme of things and if car emissions are important enough to even draw all of this attention.
Now, fact is, per capita Australians pollute more than i.e. Europeans, whose lifestyle is comparable to the Aussies. CO2 car emissions are at around 150 g/km over there while the number for Australia is around 215 g/km. Most people use their cars for short trips or on straight highways with speed limits – types of travel that we could use more environmentally friendly cars/engines without noticing the difference much. So why not just go for it and stop the whining. Why pollute more than we have to? Why use 1.2 l of petrol pr 10km when European cars travel the same distance on 0.5 litres? Changing our driving patterns and the cars we buy would make us pollute less, save us money (Due to petrol prives) and be environmetally friendly. Lots of countries (especially in Europe) will reward you (reduced taxes) for buying a car with low emissions an vice versa increase taxes and costs for those who pollute the most. Great idea which should be imposed here as well. It’s an easy thing to change and would also reduce other emissions that directly pollute our local environment – someone seen the smog in some asian cities??? Yes, they have a way to go to reduce their levels, but that doesen’t give us an excuse not to act. It’s ok to say that we all can make a difference…
Save the plants, create more CO2! :-) Come on people, the data just does not support the hype. Temps are FALLING…. please explain how the rising CO2 can be linked… seems like some divergence is happening….. http://www.controlmycarbon.com
My car only emits 156grams/kilometre. I’m a good Australian.
Thats only co2…
What car is it again???
Three question marks is grammatically incorrect
You know things are bad when humans are not only causing the Earth to suffer climate change, but can also drag down mars in the same way. I just can’t believe that what we humans are doing on earth has caused Mars to experience similar changes to us. Man made climate change is now affecting Mars, we are really screwed.
Why don’t we just let the world’s population increase and most on here just sit back and think the Earth will cope with it!
Clear fact is the problem has gotten worse with pollution (as always increases) and this is linked with the worldwide population increasing!
I truly think bring in a 1 child policy worldwide as Copenhagen has proven to how blinded and in denial the world is.
Trouble is most people on here also don’t get it and would rather be blinded and spruik forth shallow views and be in denial!
As the population worldwide has increased so has the problem and all the short term band aid fix to lessen greenhouse gases is not the answer as extreme short term. Reason for this is population will still increase and so will demand on resources and pollution they cause!
People are blind!