The Australian government will spend $84.5 million (US$56.6 million) over the next five years to set up a regulator to monitor vehicle emissions data and ensure automakers comply with the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).
According to the federal budget paper announced on May 15, the government will invest $12.6 million annually over five years in the proposed watchdog, the Cleaner Car Regulator, to take charge of day to day management of the NVES.
Labor’s new efficiency standard, which will take effect in January 2025, imposes emissions caps on each automaker’s vehicle fleet, tightening each year to reduce transport pollution.
The goal is to reduce passenger vehicle pollution by 60 percent by 2030 and emissions from commercial vehicles and some large SUVs by 50 percent.
The new regulatory body will have broad authority, including monitoring, investigating, and issuing notices to automakers to produce information.
Additionally, the regulator will also check green vehicle standards from 2025 and establish a credit-trading platform that automakers could use to avoid financial penalties under the standard.
To gauge compliance, the regulator will calculate automakers’ sales-weighted average mass and CO2 emissions and compare them against limit curves.
If results are above the limit curve, the entity has not met the target for that year, and the regulator would alert the relevant supplier of the credits and debits generated at specified times.
The regulator is expected to operate within the Climate Change Department initially, with potential alternative approaches to be considered in the first review of the NVES, which will begin in 2026.
In addition, the federal government will invest $10 million for a national awareness campaign and $60 million over four years to install charging stations at car dealerships to support their transition to electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Calls for Transparency
Australian Electric Vehicle Association national president Chris Jones welcomed the government’s decision, but said it would also be important for the group to establish a source of independent vehicle emissions data.“We currently rely on manufacturers for the quoted emissions intensity of their vehicles,” Mr. Jones said on May 15.
“It would be good to have those independently tested and maintained in a database.”
Mr. Jones said the budget’s forecast reduction in fuel excise revenue also hinted that the government could introduce a road-user charge in the future and said a tax should apply to all vehicles rather than targeting certain models.
Meanwhile, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor has criticised the growing bureaucracy under Labor.
“At a time when the Budget forecasts unemployment to rise, the Albanese Government is increasing the size of the public service by an astonishing 36,000 additional bureaucrats in Canberra,” he said on May 15.
