VED

While the global suffering caused by climate change escalates every day, UK vehicles are pumping out more greenhouse gases than ever before.

CO₂ emissions from road transport are rising. Car manufacturers, unlike most other sectors, aren't legally bound to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, when put under pressure to do something about their immense contribution to climate change, they agreed to voluntarily reduce emissions of the average new car by 2008.

Today Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the general election. Some party leaders have already hit the campaign trail, but the most important race we now face is tackling climate change.

Climate change is already killing 150,000 people a year. If the government takes climate change as seriously as it says it does, Gordon Brown will tax gas-guzzlers off our roads tomorrow when he presents the budget.

Earlier today the Chancellor made a keynote speech describing climate change as an issue of justice and recoginsed that the millennium development goals cannot be met without stabilising the climate. He also declared his ambition to make British business the world leaders in environmental productivity.

More than a hundred volunteers from Greenpeace and the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s took to the streets to poll Londoners about a proposal to increase the congestion charge to £20 for gas-guzzling vehicles like 4x4s. Of the more than 5000 people randomly polled throughout London, 85 percent agreed that the Congest Charge should be higher for gas-guzzlers.