Public Servant Lifestyle

Car adverts on billboards and in magazines will now be emblazoned with the car's climate impacts, after the Government agreed to change its advertising guidelines in response
to campaigns by two environmental pressure groups: Alliance Against Urban 4x4s and Friends of the Earth.

The fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of vehicles will now have to be prominently displayed on advertising material - with the intention of arming consumers with information they need to choose a greener vehicle - and one that needs to be filled up with fuel less often.

The Government has - until now - exempted `primarily graphical' adverts from an EU Directive on car advertising, which says that fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions information must be 'prominently' provided in all promotional literature. This had resulted in a situation - according to the two pressure groups - where most billboard adverts excluded information about a given car's carbon dioxide emissions.

The announcement came in response to a legal letter to the Department for Transport from Friends of the Earth's Rights Justice Centre acting for the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s. The green organisations wrote to the DfT in March to point out that the UK wasn't abiding with EU law and warned the Government that they would issue Judicial Review proceedings if the guidance was not changed.

Growing Awareness

Blake Ludwig of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, said: "From now on, it won't be enough to woo consumers with a sleek and sexy image of a car in billboard ads - car advertisers will need to give real and readable facts about the car's fuel economy and environmental impact. With rising fuel costs and a growing awareness about climate change, this information is crucially important for people to make greener and cheaper choices of vehicle.

"In order to cut emissions from cars, we need both strong regulation on advertising and also strong regulation that forces car manufacturers to make more efficient cars. Today's change in the advertising rules will help encourage car-makers to build more efficient vehicles, something they have so far been very slow to do."

Phil Michaels, Head of Legal at Friends of the Earth added: "Until now the UK was getting away with flouting EU legislation on car advertising - but our legal action has closed the loophole. Consumers have a right to meaningful information about how much carbon dioxide a car emits and how much fuel it guzzles, so they can choose to buy a car that will be greener and cheaper to run. We will be watching carefully to make sure that the law is now properly enforced.

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Electric Dreams - A new documentary looks at the revolution that took place with the GM EV1 and asks whether the dream of an electric car are really over?

For more information on these campaigns the following websites may be useful:

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