France Gets Eco-Labels for New Autos

From this week French cars will sport a new eco-labelling scheme, similar to the energy ones found on washing machines and fridges. In this case, the tags will indicate the CO2 emissions per kilometre for each car. France’s environment minister, Nelly Olin, said, “We must avoid a drift towards cars that are too big for our towns, too polluting, like in other countries." Wonder who she might be referring to? The report by GreenBiz observes that new French cars currently produce 152g of CO2 per kilometer on average, against an EU-wide average of 160g/km for 2005. By 2008-9 this is suppose to drop further to 140g/km. But being a voluntary industry mechanism, progress has been less than stellar. Strange that. So the French Environment Ministry are hoping this new labelling scheme will spur carmakers to pull their finger out, now that car buyers can compare brand and model against one another. It should also reduce driving fuel costs, as well as cutting France's energy dependence and combating climate change. A matching "energy label" will also become compulsory for French homes, and is due to hit the streets from 1 July 2006. ::French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development (French!) via Greenbiz.