The US has recently seen its hugely successful ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program close. This program gave $4,500 to encourage people to trade in their inefficient old cars for new, low emission alternatives. It was a very cost effective way to encourage a rapid increase in the nation’s fuel efficiency.
Australia spends many millions of dollars each year to give ‘first-home-owner’ grants to homebuyers, with grants designed to encourage home ownership and the purchase of newly built homes. If it is ok for the government to pay people to buy new homes, why arnt we considering paying people to buy fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles? In a world where drastic CO2 omission cuts are needed, shouldnt all options be on the table? After all, Australian passenger cars account for 7.8% of total emissions. This is a number which can be dramatically reduced simply through encouraging greater numbers of fuel efficient car purchases.
The secondary effect of a scheme of this nature would be to encourage greater production of fuel-efficient cars in Australia. This would help to lower the costs further, and incentivise innovation in australia which would make us world leaders in green technology.
The cars currently on the road in Australia represent the technology of yesterday, and the desires of generation X and above. Now technology has progressed, and the desires of the average driver is changing (along with the growing number of enviromentally conscious generation y drivers). Because of this we, as a society, need to work together to rapidly evolve our nation’s cars towards the future.
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