Editorial: Decision time on clean cars

Decisive action on three fronts is required if the Government wishes to significantly improve air quality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. At some time, it will have to get serious about testing exhaust emissions during warrant-of-fitness checks, improving fuel quality and controlling the condition of imported cars. Just one of these factors is the focus of its latest initiative. The Ministry of Transport has been asked to consider a limit on the age of second-hand Japanese imports. Hopefully, the outcome will be more emphatic than that associated with previous tepid endeavours.

Under the proposal, imports from Japan would be limited to cars made after 1999, when new emissions standards were introduced there. Inevitably, it has not been well received by importers. They say this would result in a 20 to 30 per cent increase in the price of imports. Local car dealers would have to bid against rivals from many more countries for newer vehicles, driving up the cost.

That is quite logical, but it also points to the reason the New Zealand vehicle fleet is, by OECD standards, dirty and inefficient. Further, it explains why air pollution levels in Auckland regularly exceed World Health Organisation standards for carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, much to the detriment of those with heart and respiratory diseases. And it confirms that New Zealanders, while buying large numbers of extremely cheap imported cars, have been living in something of a fool's paradise. Quite simply, this country has become a repository for cars no longer of interest to most of the rest of the world.

A spokesman for the importers says, also, that a limit on the age of imports would lead to people holding on to their old cars for longer because they could not afford to upgrade to new vehicles. Perversely, therefore, the average age of cars would increase. The issue, however, is one of emissions, not date of construction. Cars should not be condemned automatically because of their age. A National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research study in Auckland found that, in terms of low emissions, well-cared-for cars made the top 20 per cent regardless of how old they were. Just over 10 per cent of vehicles were responsible for more than half the carbon monoxide released into the atmosphere. The problem, therefore, lies with owners who do not, or cannot afford to, maintain their cars properly.

This suggests an age limit on imports would go only so far in curbing transport greenhouse gas emissions which, under present policy settings, are predicted to increase by 45 per cent over the next quarter-century. Clearly, the limit must be introduced in tandem with cleaner fuel and a tougher scrutiny of exhaust emissions during warrant-of-fitness checks.

This month a visible smoke test will become part of such checks. But this does not go far enough in stringency or scope. For several years, New Zealand has been the only country in the OECD without vehicle emission control standards. The Government, with an eye on the unpopularity of such a measure, has dallied. But standards are essential in the interests of intercepting cars that are not properly maintained, whatever their age.

The predicted surge in vehicle emissions is probably portentous. The rising price of fuel is already having an impact on some of the worst polluters. People are moving towards smaller, more fuel-efficient and emission-friendly cars without a need for the incentives being sought by the likes of the Business Council for Sustainable Development. Nonetheless, the Government is right to conclude that action is needed. What it must now recognise is the need for a broader brush.