Topic: | Re:Should we set a CO2 ‘tariff’ to charge the drivers of those cars that put out more CO2 more? | |
Posted by: | Bruce Hammal | |
Date/Time: | 21/09/21 00:07:00 |
There's already quite a spread in the rates of new car tax ranging from £0 to over £2000: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables There's a similar spread on annual rates: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables/rates-for-cars-registered-on-or-after-1-march-2001 The principle of taxing the highest emissions vehicles at the the highest rate is pretty well established - it's all about governments having the will to use it. Alternatively over-use of vehicles and excess fuel consumption can be addressed through the price at the pump, though again governments have ducked this option for a long time. To use this as a really effective mechanism there would need to be some banding system to acknowledge the difficulties facing people living in places with no or very poor public transport so it might get quite messy. Of course once all vehicles are electric (!?) it would be necessary to tax that too and as far as I know the electricity meter can't yet distinguish between a kettle and a Tesla. |