Article: Roche in favour of taxing vehicles based on emissions

Seth Brundle

from here

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has said he would be in favour of changing the car tax system to one based on emissions rather than engine size.

Yesterday, a major British government report warned consumers would have to accept new green taxes on travel if climate change was to be tackled in the coming decades.

Asked about the matter in Dublin this morning, Mr Roche said he accepted that changes were needed.

"If we actually change the taxation system so that you're taxing vehicles on the basis of the emissions rather than necessarily on the basis of the cubic capacity of the engine, you can encourage and incentivise people to use, for example, bio-diesel, to use renewable energy sources and to use lower carbon producing sources," he said.

It will still be an unfair system whereby it is not consumption based!
A car that emits plenty of emissions but only does 100kms per year may be taxed more than a 'cleaner' car that does 100,000kms/yr

flanzer

Bah....Pre-election rethoric.I'll believe it when I see it

Anan1

kbannon wrote:

from here


It will still be an unfair system whereby it is not consumption based!
A car that emits plenty of emissions but only does 100kms per year may be taxed more than a 'cleaner' car that does 100,000kms/yr

That said, we do already have consumption-based tax on fuel.

maidhc

Dick Roche wrote:

"If we actually change the taxation system so that you're taxing vehicles on the basis of the emissions rather than necessarily on the basis of the cubic capacity of the engine, you can encourage and incentivise people to use, for example, bio-diesel, to use renewable energy sources and to use lower carbon producing sources," he said.

How?

A car will broadly emit the same Co2 and so forth when burning ethanol/petrol or bio-diesel/dino-diesel. It is still a combustion process.

While biodiesel may be carbon neutral to a degree, unless you can write photosynthesis off against car tax I can't see how our good minister is talking sense. If anything a car capable of burning biodiesel (e.g. old car) will have a far higher emissions rating than a car which can only burn it to 10% (PD/Common rail). Maybe the plan is to fit a co2 or Nox testing lab to the exhausts of every car?

That isn't to say an emissions based tax regime is not more sensible than one based on cc's alone.

MontgomeryClift

You tax the fuel. It's that simple. As has been said, taxing the vehicle makes all sorts of assumptions about what type and how much fuel it uses.

As for tax on vehicles, you tax them based on a combination of height, footprint, third party safety in the event of a collision and the amount of energy it takes to manufacture it.

And his government is doing anything but 'incentivising' people to use renewables.

junkyard

Its just another scam, all these taxes as a result of global warming are a total rip-off. The sooner people realise that the better.

Tipsy Mac

MontgomeryClift wrote:

And his government is doing anything but 'incentivising' people to use renewables.

Yes they should lead by example and practise what they preach, not one of them has a ministerial car below 2 litres in size.:mad:

mike65

Tax the fuel not the car.

Mike.

mloc123

mike65 wrote:

Tax the fuel not the car.

Mike.

I agree, road tax should be done away with and just added to fuel tax instead. It would make things alot easier.

Kashkai

I'd have thought that if Roche would shut up for just one day, this reduction in his CO2 emissions would go a long way to meeting our Kyoto targets. As Minister for the Environment, why doesn't he drive an electric or solar powered car instead of his (i.e. our taxpayer funded) swanky Lexus. Prat:mad:

junkyard

Prosperous Dave wrote:

I'd have thought that if Roche would shut up for just one day, this reduction in his CO2 emissions would go a long way to meeting our Kyoto targets. As Minister for the Environment, why doesn't he drive an electric or solar powered car instead of his (i.e. our taxpayer funded) swanky Lexus. Prat:mad:

You'd have to block more than his mouth, he talks through his @rse too. He really is an annoying arrogant d*ckhead I'd have to agree with Charlie Haughey on that one point.

JHMEG

My wife drives a Civic IMA (ie hybrid), yet despite having one of the lowest CO2 emissions of any internal combustion engined car (116g/km), she gets no encouragement under the current road tax scheme.

In the UK, there are a load of incentives: a £1000 grant, £25/year road tax, and London congestion charge exemption.

Here, the only "incentive" is a reduction in VRT -- it should be completely exempt if the govt were serious about getting people into hybrids, and cars like them.

The end result is that in the 6 months she's had it, we have never seen another IMA.