Merry Christmas 2023

To say 2023 has been an interesting year on many fronts is a massive understatement. The climate events in January and February were catastrophic, to say the least, and yet still, we can find some voices who deny that we have a climate emergency on our hands.  The evidence of global warming is crystal clear and has been for several decades, but the well-funded fossil fuel lobby has obfuscated and cast fear, uncertainty and doubt at every turn in an effort to keep shareholders happy.

Driving an EV is shown to reduce the carbon footprint of personal transport, and many of us have never doubted that it is one very important piece of the jigsaw of climate mitigation.  We just need more buy-in from the general population, and I have the greatest admiration for those Trust members who use their keyboards relentlessly to correct the FUD found daily on social media sites.

This year, The Trust, through advertising, tried hard to educate the public about the possible downsides of removing the Clean Car Discount and loosening the Clean Car Standard.  As we now know, this did nothing to soften the attitude of the new Coalition government, and we will have to live with the consequences. EV drivers will also start paying RUC from April 2024, and it would appear that the entire way transport pays for road upkeep may be in for a step change – moving all passenger transport to an RUC model rather than ‘pay-at-the-pump’. Even with the addition of RUC for each kilometre driven, it is still way cheaper to drive on home-produced electricity!

With this beautiful pohutakawa tree to remind us of the season, we wish all of you a very merry Christmas and a clean, green, Happy New Year! 

- Kathryn Trounson