A programme of vehicle emission standards is proposed, which would allow the greatest flexibility to manufacturers, and enable the application of consumer incentives and disincentives. It provides modest but clear reductions in emissions for each year, so that a specific target is reached within a defined time-interval. An emission standards table for all private cars is displayed, which gives, for the years 1991 to 2015, possible emission standards (g per km) for carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and particulates. Another table compares these standard values with actual US and Californian standards and proposed European Union standards. In the proposed programme, a vehicle's `year' would be determined by the set of standards that it meets when new or retested, rather than by its year of manufacture. At least two thirds of the private cars sold by a manufacturer in a given year would have to meet that year's standards; each other car would be assigned the appropriate earlier year. The annual tax for the owner of a vehicle would be zero if the current year's standards were met, but increase rapidly with the number of years behind the current year. This would motivate manufacturers to make cars `ahead of their time'.
Abstract