Inside the car industry’s climate lobbying push
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The car industry has been driving a co-ordinated lobbying campaign among policymakers to limit emissions cuts from vehicles and to downplay the role of electric vehicles, government documents reveal.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), a peak body representing major auto brands, has been a public advocate for an orderly transition from petrol to electric vehicles but documents suggest that behind the scenes it has been pushing for weaker pollution rules for Australian cars.
Fewer than 4 per cent of new cars sold in Australia were electric.Credit: Louie Douvis
“Their aim is to convince Minister Bowen that legislating the FCAI’s [existing] voluntary standard would effectively reduce emissions,” according to notes taken at a July meeting between motoring officials and senior Department of Climate Change staff.
The auto industry lobbying campaign has been charted through documents obtained under freedom of information laws by InfluenceMap, an international think tank that tracks climate change-related lobbying by interest groups.
The documents include confidential briefing notes for government officials, notes from meetings between car executives and bureaucrats, technical research material and handwritten notes recording discussions about vehicle pollution.
Along with Russia, Australia is an outlier for its lack of fuel efficiency standards. More than 85 per cent of global car sales now take place in countries with regulations. It means Australians have limited access to electric cars or more fuel-efficient petrol cars. New cars in Australia use 40 per cent more fuel than those in the European Union and 20 per cent more than those in the US.
The federal government is in the final stages of preparing a national policy to regulate transport emissions. An announcement on mandatory fuel efficiency standards has been promised this year.
“The FCAI implemented a voluntary fuel efficiency standard for its members, which seeks a 4 per cent per annum emissions reduction for cars and light SUVs and 3 per cent for 4WDs and utes, with generous credits available,” reads a briefing note to senior bureaucrats at the Department of Infrastructure and Transport ahead of a meeting with FCAI executives in September.
“There is no compliance mechanism and the voluntary standard has not provided sufficient incentive for global manufacturers to provide EV and the latest fuel-saving internal combustion technology to Australia.”
The FCAI’s voluntary industry standard would mean new passenger cars sold in 2030 would still pump out an average of 98 grams of CO2 per kilometre, according to confidential modelling produced by the motoring group.
By comparison, European standards specified 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre in 2022, and a ban on almost all new petrol and diesel vehicles including hybrids in 13 years. Britain plans to ban the sale of most new petrol and hybrid cars from 2030.
The meeting notes record FCAI officials contending that too few electric vehicles will be available to meet a push for most new passenger vehicle sales to be electric by 2035.
“While the FCAI has been calling for government to implement a mandatory fuel efficiency standard, the level of emissions reduction supported by FCAI may be lower than the government is contemplating, and is clearly lower than climate and EV groups consider necessary to support the government’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets,” the September briefing note says.
The briefing note also says “the FCAI was sharply criticised following the publication of a leaked FCAI document” by this masthead in August.
That document detailed a campaign last year for the FCAI to shape public discussion and position the auto industry as a “trusted voice” in the “moderate middle” of the climate debate.
The InfluenceMap group said the FCAI’s strategy of lobbying policymakers to weaken emissions laws while running a public relations campaign was a tactic widely used by the fossil fuel industry.
“This behind-the-scenes effort reveals the automotive industry adopting a similar playbook to the oil industry to weaken climate rules promoting battery electric vehicles,” said InfluenceMap program manager Ben Youriev.
“These documents show the FCAI and some of its key members are advocating to lock in a longer term role for combustion-powered vehicles by introducing significantly weaker fuel efficiency rules than in other regions like the US, EU, and New Zealand.”
Asked about the documents, the FCAI said it its members would “work alongside the government to introduce a much-needed fuel efficiency standard”.
“The federal government’s consultation process is well advanced and the FCAI and its members are playing a very active role in that work,” FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said in a statement.
He pointed to a press release the group published last month that said FCAI had been calling for a federally led vehicle emissions standards for many years.
“I expect this makes it crystal clear that the FCAI wants a standard in place – one that supports a reduction of carbon emissions from the light vehicle sector and acknowledges the vehicle needs, demands and price and model accessibility of Australian families and businesses.”
The industry’s existing voluntary standard was put in place because there were no national emissions rules for vehicles, and the voluntary standard would cease when a national fuel efficiency standard was brought in, he said.
Transport is Australia’s third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, after energy and agriculture, and it is getting dirtier, rising by 48 per cent since 1990.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen last month said the fuel efficiency standard would help cut the country’s emissions by at least 3 million tonnes of carbon by 2030, and over 10 million tonnes by 2035.
There were about 83,000 electric vehicles in Australia 2022, and just over 4900 public chargers. Only 3.8 per cent of cars sold in Australia last year were electric, compared to 17 per cent in the EU and 15 per cent in Britain.
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