Emission targets will remain as an illusion for the Republic says motor experts

As per Motor dealers’ claim the lack of interaction between the Greens and the Government will cause the Republic to miss emission target.

The Irish Car Carbon Reduction Alliance (ICCRA), says that Government’s inaction will destroy electric vehicle sales.

The group argues that the Government needs to cut tax on new cars by an average of €3,000 on each one sold if it wants to stimulate the sale of electric vehicles.

It is calling for a reduction of vehicle registration tax in next week’s budget.

The alliance can show that the Government used flawed data to set targets for electric vehicle sales in the Climate Action Plan (CAP), but the coalition, and the Green Party in particular, is ignoring expert advice.

ICCRA spokesman Denis Murphy accused the Green Party of failing to meaningfully discuss the issue with the alliance.

He said that they have sent evidence and an expert independent report by Colm McCarthy, an authoritative economist.

Mr Murphy said the Climate Change Advisory Council is concerned about the issue.

He highlighted that the annual report points out the need for policy to stimulate accelerated new-car turnover and without this current EV targets cannot be achieved.

There are now 10,290 electric vehicles on the Republic’s roads. In 2008, the then government, which included the Green Party, set a target of 250,000 for this year.

He also warned that CAP’s latest target of 840,000 electric vehicles by 2030 is about to fail as it is based on inaccurate and incomplete data and that the figure is likely to be closer to 500,000 which is a big shortage.