By Frank Van Lerven – New Economics Foundation: This week, the Scottish government pledged to phase out all new petrol and
diesel cars by 2032 – a welcome eight years earlier than the UK-wide
ban due by 2040. Air pollution and carbon emissions from transport are
major problems. More than 40,000 premature deaths are
attributable to high levels of air pollution in the UK alone. The
sooner we leave petrol and diesel cars in the past, the better. But even
the Scots are setting a 15-year horizon on the ban. Why so long?
The outrage of the right-wing tabloid press over anything that feels
like ‘bashing the motorist’ has a lot to do with it. And certainly, new
technology has a way to go – though it’s rapidly developing. At present,
Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) – that’s electric cars, hybrids,
plug-in hybrids, range extenders and hydrogen powered models – make up
just 4.2% all new car purchases. But environmental regulation spurs innovation,
and would start to accelerate demand for AFVs. The whole point of
setting a date by which something will be banned is to incentivise doing
something else.
But there’s more to it than that. For a more sophisticated answer, we
need to look under the bonnet. Who really holds the power? It certainly
isn’t the people whose lungs suffer daily as a result of illegally high air pollution. Much has been written about the power of the car industry itself. But who fuels it? And perhaps even less well understood – who finances it?
