Press release: 3 June 2020

UK car industry wants £1.5bn scheme for diesel and petrol cars

According to The Guardian, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has been in talks with the UK Government over a possible £1.5bn scrappage scheme that would encourage the purchase of diesel and petrol cars. Below is a response from Andrea Lee, ClientEarth’s clean air campaigns and policy manager.

“The Prime Minister has said he wants to make the UK ‘the home of electric vehicles’. This starts with not using public money to shore up polluting vehicles, especially when the car industry has misled consumers in the past.

“Scrappage schemes should be targeted to allow for people on low incomes and small businesses to move to cleaner forms of transport such as zero exhaust emission vehicles, including electric bicycles, as well as subsidising public transport season tickets and car club membership.

“Subsidies that keep dirty vehicles on the roads have no place in creating a healthier and fairer future for the UK.”

ENDS

About ClientEarth

ClientEarth is a charity that uses the power of the law to protect people and the planet. We are international lawyers finding practical solutions for the world’s biggest environmental challenges. We are fighting climate change, protecting oceans and wildlife, making forest governance stronger, greening energy, making business more responsible and pushing for government transparency. We believe the law is a tool for positive change. From our offices in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin and Beijing, we work on laws throughout their lifetime, from the earliest stages to implementation. And when those laws are broken, we go to court to enforce them.