The world today is full of those who promise to be greener, promise to do more for the environment, promise to make the world a better place. But empty promises mean as much to us as an empty jar of peanut butter does to me; nothing! So it is gratifying to see that Europe is picking up the gauntlet of creating a cleaner place for us to live.
Following in the steps of the EU and their Emission Trading Scheme, Australia will be implementing a their own by 2010. Announced Monday by the Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, the national scheme would “constitute the most significant economic and structural reform undertaken in Australia since the trade liberalization of the 1980s.”
Often it is hard to understand just what a trading scheme is all about, but I finally found it explained simply and clearly. The AFP wrote; ‘Emissions trading schemes place a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas pollution which companies can produce, forcing heavy polluters to buy credits from companies that pollute less — thereby creating financial incentives to fight global warming.’
The fight against climate change has moved on considerably in the past year. Today, the debate is less about if, and more about what.
But concrete action has been slow, and whilst the world continues to talk, emissions continue to rise. However, another small but significant step has been made during the past week with an agreement between EU leaders to commit to legislation setting firm targets for a 20% reduction in Co2 emissions before 2020.
Janez Jansa , Prime Minister of Solvenia who currently holds the rotating EU presidency told reporters that EU leaders have taken a “huge step forward” with this agreement.
Germany prides itself on its auto industry, and with good reason. German cars have a world reputation for performance, style, reliability and solid engineering. Its also one of the few countries where high performance cars can be fully put to the test, with many sections of its autobahns being free of speed restrictions - its not unusual when driving at very high speeds in Germany to be overtaken by other cars travelling at very very very high speeds.
So it was of little surprise that the German auto industry, represented by brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Volkswagen Audi vigorously lobbied its government for concessions on new European fuel economy standards (see box text below). Manufacturers were chiefly concerned with loosing their dominance of the luxury car segment through being forced to manufacture smaller, more efficient cars.
“We don’t want Germany to became a nation of small car owners”
President of the German automotive industry association, Matthias Wissmann, told a news conference recently “We don’t want Germany to became a nation of small car owners”. The German government has backed its automakers, claiming that the EU proposals place an unfair burden on German industry in comparison to the French and Italians.
Subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter
