German government plans to tax cars on emissions

BERLIN, Feb 18 (Reuters) Germany's government plans to tax cars based on emissions instead of engine size to help tackle climate change, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said.

Tiefensee told a news conference late yeserday that German and other European carmakers had to do more to protect the environment, after the head of the UN Environment Programme had chided Europe for complacency over climate change.

''The government will be pursuing that aim and that's why we're going to reform the motor vehicle taxes. The size of the engine will no longer be the determining factor but rather the impact on the environment, not only CO2 but other pollutants,'' he said.

''Those who continue to drive stink-bombs will have to pay more.

We want a system that both rewards and punishes. I'm sure that'll help boost technology for cars in Germany and Europe that pollute less and need less fuel.'' UNEP head Achim Steiner had said in a German newspaper interview published today European nations were not doing enough to fight climate change and had grown complacent.

Carbon dioxide (CO2), produced by burning fossil fuels, traps heat in the atmosphere. Scientists say if emissions are not curbed sea levels will rise and droughts and floods may happen more frequently.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to make fighting climate change a centrepiece of Germany's twin EU and G8 presidencies.

But Germany's recent track record on cutting CO2 emissions is poor. It vowed to cut these by 21 per cent from 1990 to 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol but has slipped away from the target.

Germany is Europe's biggest polluter. Environmentalists have criticised the poor progress in recent years on lowering CO2 emissions after an appreciable drop in the 1990s -- due largely to collapse of former communist East Germany.

''We want to reward those who build a more environmentally friendly vehicle,'' said Tiefensee, a leader in the Social Democrats who share power with Merkel's Christian Democrats.

He said he was discussing details with Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Full implementation of the measure is expected to take six years.

Tiefensee has repeatedly spoken out against a general speed limit on German motorways, the only roads in the world without speed limits and an important testing ground for German cars.

Environmentalists say a speed limit would cut CO2 emissions considerably. But German carmakers firmly oppose such a measure.

The German car industry welcomed Tiefensee's proposal. Bernd Gottschalk, president of the association of German car makers, said it would give people an additional incentive to trade in their cars for new, more efficient vehicles.

Reuters AB DB2239