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London's proposed new CO2-based congestion charge scheme isn't quite the challenge it once would have been, writes Guy Bird
We all know Ken Livingstone likes a wind-up but when I heard his plans to charge £25 for the worst CO2 emitters to drive through central London a few years back I truly thought he'd lost it. Well now he's doing it. The 'consultation' (read foregone conclusion) went out the other week.
Back then, the idea of a whopping £25 for those with official emissions more than 225g/km and a 100% exemption for cars emitting 120g/km or less of carbon dioxide seemed like anti-car politics at its most brazen. A big stick and a measly carrot.
Hardly any vehicles - bar the saintly Prius and a couple of city cars - could then meet it.
By comparison the list of motors above 225g/km of CO2 was massively longer, and included many average MPVs and family saloons alongside sports cars and 4x4s.
But forward-wind to mid-2007 and the sub-120g/km exemption offer for Euro4-compliant cars seems less measly. Almost every day another carmaker announces dramatic CO2 cuts and fuel efficiency gains. It's amazing what those boffins can do when they want to, or when their management sees EU an regulation on the horizon threatening to fine car companies millions of Euros for not cutting their average CO2 quickly enough.
There are about 25 new models including small family cars and MPVs as well as city cars that could drive into Ken's zone without charge under the new scheme. When it goes live - scheduled for February 4 2008 for the carrot and October 6 2008 for the stick - that number could double. The 225g/km-plus car list will surely drop, too, as carmakers seek to make their products favourable to other proposed Europe-wide CO2 tax systems.
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"It's amazing what those boffins can do when they want to, or when their management sees EU an regulation on the horizon threatening to fine car companies millions of Euros for not cutting their average CO2 quickly enough." |
Guy Bird
To me, however, there are three problems. Firstly, it's outrageous for residents within the zone who already own a 225g/km-plus car (or a 3.0-litre registered before March 2001) to have their 90% exemption removed given most will have bought their car well before this legislation was even talked about. At worst, maybe they should pay 90% of £25 and be incentivised into buying a newer lower emitting car within a five-year scrappage scheme window?
Seconldy, the £8 to £25 charge hike is too big a jump for cars just above the 225g/km mark - a group that includes some pretty efficient-engined motors that happen to be fitted to bigger cars many owners genuinely need. It should be graduated with only maybe 350g/km-plus cars paying the top rate.
And thirdly, if Ken is really concerned about emissions rather than winding up rich Londoners with nice big cars, he should similarly incentivise car-related modes of public transport to choose greener cars. Even the latest Euro4 231g/km CO2-rated TX4 auto London taxi would face a daily £25 fee as a private vehicle; most London cabs are much older and dirtier. London's Mayor should also organise the roadworks better. That would actually reduce congestion.
Let's just hope Ken doesn't lower the exemption bar to sub-100g/km when he realises how many cars will soon be able to limbo under it.
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