The Gillard Government 2020 Target Claim – Under the microscope.

Ever since the current Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, said that the proposed Carbon Tax aims to reduce “deadly greenhouse gas” emissions by 160 million tonnes ($3,680,000,000 worth at $23 per tonne of CO2) by the year 2020, and that this (for perspective) equates to taking 45 million cars off the road, I personally wondered what sort of cars? You see even in these modern times of Business, Industry and Government transparency…the Federal Government of Australia still likes the traditional avenue of deceit. Was she referring to “fuel guzzlers”, or efficient, modern vehicles?

I have done the calculations for a number of different makes and models of the top selling vehicles of Australia – Utilizing information obtained from the Australian Federal Government’s ‘Green Vehicle Guide’ - http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au to find out exactly what cars she may have been referring to.

The Holden Commodore is an Australian icon, and the current model (specially the Specifically the Holden VE SIDI Commodore Berlina 3.0L 6cyl, Auto 6 speed Sedan, 5 seater, 2WD) is ranked #2 as on a list of Australia’s most selling cars…it also outperforms the Ford Falcon in terms grams of CO2 per Kilometre travelled (combined urban and highway).

According to the Green Vehicle Guide, the Holden Commodore emits 221g/Km (combined) of CO2, or in other words it travels approximately 5.35km per Kg of CO2 it releases, or 4530km per tonne of CO2.

Therefore 4530Km (1 Tonne CO2) X 160 million (the 2020 target, in tonnes of CO2)

=724,800,000,000 Km’s

1 Holden Commodore would have to travel 724.8 BILLION Kilometres to produce the amount of CO2 that the Federal Government wants to cut by the year 2020.

But the Gillard Government didn’t say THAT, they opted for a figure of 45 Million “cars” because that must sound better or something…

That figure of 724.8 BILLION Km’s doesn’t look so big when you divide it over 45 Million cars, as touted by Ms. Gillard. In fact, it equates to 45 million cars (of the modern Holden Commodores performance) clocking up 16,106km p.a, or roughly 44.13Km per day over a 365 day year.

45 million cars sounds like a lot, however information provided by http://www.bridgeclimb.com/The-Bridge/Traffic/ states that just under 161,000 vehicles cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge per day based on 2008 averages.

Although I don't agree with the tax, I'll admit...where this reduction target is met, it'll be impressive.

As usual, I need a image to make things look nice and pretty. Considering the subject matter of this entry, I've decided to use the "Wagon Queen Family Truckster" from Nation Lampoon's Vacation.

This vehicle has always cracked me up, with the 'Metallic Pea' paint, the wooden panels, giant crown emblems, garbage bag airbag, 'dieseling' (running while it's turned off), ugly headlight configuration...and the amount of fun those working on the film would have had putting it through what they did (the 50ft jump in the desert scene) and the "Honky Lips" graffiti work. I recently learned that the man that designed the Batmobile is also credited to this beast :D