New Zealand sets world’s toughest CO2 target

The New Zealand motor industry has branded the Ardern government’s proposed CO2 emissions reduction target of 40 per cent by 2025 as “the most aggressive and severe in the world” and says it looks impossible to achieve given the close ties to the Australian market where no such initiatives are in place.

The Kiwi government announced today that it was moving quickly to introduce a Clean Car Import Standard to reduce emissions and the fuel costs of motorists, setting a target of 105 grams of CO2 per kilometre for motor vehicle distributors to achieve across their respective model range by 2025.

Failure to achieve this marker, which will be phased in with annual targets set from 2022 onwards, will attract penalties for the car-makers, just as they do in other markets such as Europe.

The CO2 emissions standard is one of several measures designed to help New Zealand achieve its goal to become carbon neutral by 2050, the others including all new public transport buses to be zero-emissions from 2025 and mandating a cleaner biofuel blend across the transport sector.

But the New Zealand Motor Industry Association (MIA), which supports a fuel economy standard, said the 2025 target is too tough.

“While we believe the fuel economy standard is necessary, the speed at which we must reach the average target of 105 grams of CO2 per kilometre is the most aggressive and severe in the world,” said MIA chief executive David Crawford.

“No other country has ever had to face a 40 per cent rate of reduction in five years that we now must meet.

“We urge the government to amend the target date to 2030.”

Crawford said the 2025 target date “does not allow time for model development, vehicle sourcing arrangements and does not recognise that for many distributors in New Zealand their model choice is tied to the Australian market”.

“With no similar policy required in Australia, our market, which represents just 0.018 per cent of new vehicle production in any one year, is too small for manufacturers to develop models just for us,” he said.

“We also urge the rules to be the same for both new and used imported vehicles. Giving used imported vehicles softer penalties will lead to an increase in older, less safe vehicles entering New Zealand.”

NZ transport minister Michael Wood said legislation will be passed this year and the standard will begin in 2022, with the progressive targets giving importers time to adjust before the 105g/km mandate comes into force in 2025.

“The Import Standard will prevent up to three million tonnes of emissions by 2040, mean more climate-friendly cars are available, and will give families average lifetime fuel savings of nearly $7000 per vehicle,” he said.

“The government will also consider options for an incentive scheme to help Kiwis make the switch to clean cars.”

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern added that she was determined to move quickly to implement key election promises.

“Transport makes up our second highest amount of emissions after agriculture, so it’s important we reduce emissions from our vehicle fleet,” she said.

“Tackling climate change is a priority for the government and remains a core part of our COVID recovery plan. We can create jobs and economic opportunities while reducing our emissions, so it’s win-win for our economy and climate.”

After booming in recent years, New Zealand sold just under 120,000 new vehicles in 2020, down 23 per cent compared to the previous year.

Of these, 1519 were pure-electric vehicles, 756 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and 8664 conventional hybrids.

The top-selling vehicle in New Zealand last year was the Ford Ranger on 7975 units, followed by the Toyota HiLux (5796) and Toyota RAV4 (5341).

In Australia, there are no government targets for CO2 emissions, but the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) – which is the equivalent to the NZ MIA, representing the motor vehicle importers and distributors – last year announced it was targeting a 36 per cent reduction by 2030 to below 100g/km.

This is a voluntary standard, longer-term in nature and comes without penalties. It represents a four per cent reduction on average achieved annually throughout this decade.

Australia sold just shy of 917,000 new vehicles last year, down 13.7 per cent.

EVs amounted to 1769 sales (not including Tesla, which does not report its figures), while 1685 PHEVs were sold and 60,417 regular hybrids.