The Authority has made a submission in response to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Art’s Fuel Efficiency Standard consultation paper. The consultation paper sought views on key considerations for the design of a Fuel Efficiency Standard for light vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In its submission the Authority stated that the Government’s proposed Fuel Efficiency Standard should decline to 0 g CO2 per km as rapidly as the market can adapt, with due consideration to, and monitoring of, supply chain issues.
The Authority emphasised that:
- overcoming supply chain issues and increasing the scale of electric vehicle production, and ultimately reaching price parity between electric and fuel combustion vehicles, will be part of ensuring consumers are able to make low emissions choices in the vehicles they purchase.
- there needs to be greater deployment of recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles in Australia to ensure this does not hold back demand for these vehicles. Additionally, the increase in electrified transport will have implications for the electricity grid, which should be considered in related energy transition policy development processes.
The submission contains insights and recommendations on the design of the Fuel Efficiency Standard to ensure its integrity and effectiveness which aligns with previous advice from reports, ‘Light Vehicle Emissions Standards for Australia’ (2014) and ‘Prospering in a low-emissions world: An updated climate policy toolkit for Australia’ (2020).
You can view the Authority’s submission here [PDF].