On May 16, 2024, the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard was voted into law by the Federal Parliament.

Under this new law, climate pollution produced by new cars, vans and utes will more than halve by the end of the decade, preventing 20 million tonnes of climate pollution. That’s the same amount of pollution produced by every gas-connected home in Australia for more than two years! 

This is a huge climate win, which we relentlessly campaigned for. Over the past two years, Climate Council held dozens of political briefings, made three government submissions, produced 13 explainers and reports, flooded the inboxes and social media feeds of political decision-makers and had our spokespeople appear in the media more than 2,500 times.

It was a long and arduous fight, but our values-led, science-driven approach ensured we kept up a consistent drum beat that informed thousands of Aussies and kept this issue ‘front and centre’ for politicians and decision makers.

We’ve locked up the garage for good when it comes to expensive, polluting, inefficient cars. Australians will finally have access to more low and zero emissions vehicles already being sold in their millions overseas

Amanda McKenzie, Climate Council CEO

This is a win for the climate, a win for our health, a win for our hip-pockets, and a win for all Australians – whether they drive a car or not. 

Find out more about how this policy works.

So, what’s next?

While driving low and zero emission vehicles are an essential part of the puzzle, simply switching every private petrol or diesel vehicle for a lower emissions one won’t deliver the deep cuts to climate pollution we need to make this decade.

To clean up pollution from transport, we need more shared transport (eg. public transport, ridesharing), active transport (like walking and bike riding ) AND electric vehicles. Giving people who live in our big cities frequent and convenient access to shared and active transport is our biggest opportunity to slash climate pollution from transport this decade. 

Over the next few months, we’ll be taking our plan to slash climate pollution from transport directly to decision makers across state and federal governments, and we’ll be sharing all the benefits a transport system that prioritises moving people, rather than cars, can deliver for Aussie communities with our supporters, the media and more. 

Learn more about why delivering a transport system that enables more people to have more choice in how they get around is the biggest opportunity for transport this decade here.