Car makers must not become a casualty in war of words on CO2

Figures to be published in Towards Sustainability - SMMT's eighth annual sustainability report - will show annual CO2 emissions from UK car and CV manufacturing have fallen 36.5 per cent from 2.14 to 1.36 million tonnes in just four years. This improvement follows figures in SMMT's new car CO2 report, published in July, which revealed average new car CO2 emissions fell 12 per cent in a decade, saving an estimated one million tonnes of CO2 each year.

In addition to charting progress on environmental measures, Towards Sustainability highlights sector economics. This year, it will show the value of Britain's largest manufacturing sector which employs more than 850,000 people and has a turnover of £48.5bn.

However, despite the improvement in sustainability and importance of the sector to jobs and the economy, government and opposition parties are currently battling to out-green each other with a series of disproportionate and unworkable policy measures for auto makers and their customers. SMMT has today called for a stop to the hollow gestures which undermine confidence and send a message that threatens jobs and investment in UK plc.

'In the hunt for a good sound-bite, politicians are losing sight of good policy,' said SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan. 'Ideas like banning petrol cars or slapping £2,000 on the purchase price of a new car might make headlines, but they offer little in the way of practical solutions to the very real issue of limiting climate change.'

The automotive sector is Europe's largest investor in R&D, spending €20bn annually, or four per cent of turnover in bringing cleaner technologies to market. But in parallel with the development of cleaner vehicles, industry argues that cost-effective complementary measures like wider biofuel distribution and congestion reduction must be at the heart of government policy.

This integrated approach also means developing measures that help improve driver behaviour, a point made last week in a report published by the Commission for Integrated Transport. According to CfIT, measures like eco-driving and better speed limit enforcement could save 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020 alone.