Environment Magazine

IN APRIL 2009, the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) system will be reformed to incentivise low-emission cars.

The structure and banding will be:

CAR adverts on billboards and in magazines will now include emissions information following the admittance by the Department for Transport (DfT) that it wrongly interpreted an EU directive.

The threat of legal proceedings by the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s and Friends of the Earth (FoE) prompted the DfT to reexamine its guidelines for mcar manufacturers, who were being advised that the information would not have to be carried on ‘primarily graphical' advertising. The fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of vehicles will now have to be prominently displayed, arming consumers with the information they need to choose a greener vehicle.

The announcement came in response to a legal letter to the DfT from FoE's Rights Justice Centre acting for the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s. The green organisations wrote to the DfT in March to point out that the UK wasn't abiding with EU law and warned the Government that they would issue Judicial Review proceedings if the guidance was not changed.