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Will EU proposals price first time car buyers out of the market?
The EU has decided that we need to clamp down on CO2 emissions from cars. Manufacturers will be set a target that is about a fifth less than an average Ford Focus does today. Or a third of the total emissions of a top spec Range Rover.
Emissions from cars need to be cut – we all agree on that. This is the future of our planet we are talking about. But car manufacturers have said that these proposals will add £3,300 to the price of a new car. This will price many people out of the market – especially when it comes to buying their first car.
Will people, especially first time buyers, be prepared to pay more for a greener car? There are alternatives – Lotus Cars in Norfolk have been doing a lot of work with US firm Tesla Motors. The Tesla Roadster has an electric motor that produces fantastic performance and has a range of 250 miles. Most importantly of all it has no CO2 emissions at all. The problem – at the moment each Tesla Roadster will cost £50,000. But this is cutting edge stuff and much more should be done to support this kind project.
Posted in Climate Change on 7 February 2007 by David Ruffley
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) convened in Paris yesterday to decide on the final wording of its Fourth Assessment Report – the latest definitive document of climate science. The IPCC’s report, which is published on Friday, is likely to state what many of us have come to believe – that human induced climate change is happening and needs to be addressed.
The meeting comes as the World Glacier Monitoring Service has stated that glaciers are shrinking at three times the speed they were in the 1980s. Their latest survey shows that their sample glaciers became 60 – 70cm thinner during 2005. Wilfried Haeberil, World Glacier Monitoring Service Director, has warned that we are likely to enter conditions which the world has not seen in the last 10,000 years, and conditions that mankind has never experienced.
The threat of global warming is real, it is here and it must be tackled. David Cameron has done us all a great service by bringing the green agenda to the forefront of the political agenda. Politicians in Westminster and across the globe must unite in the fight against global warming. There is perhaps no greater threat to our planet’s future.
Posted in Climate Change on 30 January 2007 by David Ruffley