Guilt trips
Stark warnings on petrol pumps – akin to those on cigarette packs – could be used to reduce car use, and persuade motorists to switch to greener vehicles. Olivia Wannan reports.
Eco-warning labels on petrol pumps could prevent our transport emissions from resurging once Covid-19 travel restrictions are lifted, climate activists say.
Although worldwide lockdowns have seen emissions and pollution plummet, any reductions will be temporary if people’s habits return to normal. The greenhouse gases New Zealand drivers emitted on the roads have steadily increased in recent years, proving stubbornly hard to quell.
Akin to cigarette packet warnings, eco-labels force petrol and diesel car owners to confront the environmental impact of individual emissions each time they visit a petrol station.
In theory, stark warnings would encourage us to reduce car usage and make greener choices when we next purchase a vehicle.
Sweden will be the first country to put the concept to the test. In 2018, the Swedish parliament passed a law requiring eco-labels on all petrol pumps, detailing the climate impact and origin of the dispensed fuel.
The new labels are required to be in place by next month, though the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to delay the rollout.
British and US health experts threw their weight behind the idea in a recent British Medical
Journal opinion. Here in New Zealand, Massey University’s Robert McLachlan is calling for our Government to consider it.
At the moment, motorists are reminded of their vehicle emissions only if they choose to use a carbon calculator, such as the one on Z Energy’s app. The counter tells drivers the tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted with every refuel, and gives the option to offset them.
But McLachlan thinks these calculations – typically in kilograms or tonnes of carbon dioxide – can be confusing or meaningless. In contrast, ecolabels would put a simple, bold and confronting message in everyone’s face.
One of his proposed eco-labels doesn’t hold back: ‘‘[Vehicle fuel] emits gases known to be damaging to the long-term stability of the climate, estimated to cause trillions of dollars in damages, especially impacting at-risk populations such as minorities and the poor.’’
That’s intentional. The concept that society must stop burning fossil fuels in our vehicles entirely (not just reduce consumption) to avoid catastrophic climate change must be widely understood, McLachlan says. Top-up by top-up, eco-labels could convey – and reinforce – this message. ‘‘I just don’t think people make the connection between filling up at the petrol station and climate change.’’
McLachlan also proposes attaching the message to any advert for a fossil-fuelled vehicle.
With lots of sustainable electricity generation, New Zealand is uniquely placed to switch to an electric vehicle fleet during the next decade or so, he says. ‘‘The benefits are just enormous.’’
By increasing awareness, ecolabels could also build political support for strong climate action addressing all sources of emissions.
‘‘People say they would like to see strong government action on climate change, but most of them are not doing much about it themselves.’’
Karolina Skog was Sweden’s environment minister when the ecolabelling legislation was passed. She encourages other countries and cities to adopt the concept.
‘‘The oil companies were not very happy about the fact they are [required] to tell the truth on their products [but] when people are reminded again and again of the emissions from their driving, the willingness to change will come,’’ she told the Swedish Association of Green Motorists.
The US city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of the first to mirror the example. The city council passed an ordinance earlier this year requiring warning labels on the climate impacts of fossil fuels to be put on service station pumps.
Cambridge vice-mayor Jan Devereux first proposed the idea in 2016. The labels are one way to discourage fossil fuel usage, she says. ‘‘I hope it will help to make drivers think more about their choices.’’
However, she thinks the regulations will be put on the backburner, because of the Covid-19 outbreak. ‘‘A month ago I might have said yes, other cities will follow. Now, with the public health crisis and a looming economic depression, I think policymakers have much more immediate problems to address.’’
University of Otago public health researcher Dr Janet Hoek says any eco-label scheme will need strong backing from government to have a chance of success.
Hoek was a leading proponent of plain packaging and health warning labels on cigarettes. After studying the impact of the measures in New Zealand, she and fellow researchers found the change in packaging made cigarettes less attractive, particularly to young people.
‘‘There was a massive spike in calls to the Quitline after the introduction of plain packaging,’’ Hoek says. ‘‘That spike in calls was sustained over
a reasonable period of time. It wasn’t just a flash in the pan.’’
Though car owners are ‘‘locked in’’ to buying a certain type of fuel, Hoek thinks pump eco-labels could nudge the public to embrace active and public transport or choose an ecofriendly vehicle when next purchasing a car.
‘‘These kind of labels can just be the trigger . . . that gets people thinking ‘Now’s the time’,’’ she says.
A key difference would be the ‘‘frequency of exposure’’ – a heavy smoker sees the warnings several times a day, whereas a driver might only spot an ecolabel once or twice a fortnight. ‘‘It’s an argument for having a multi-faceted campaign.’’
To discourage smoking, plain packaging was paired with regular excise increases on tobacco, Hoek says.
Similarly, she thought ecolabels would have a much better shot at changing behaviour if the government added a financial incentive, such as fare-free public transport or congestion charges.
‘‘A one-off gesture like putting labels in wouldn’t have the impact that a co-ordinated strategic campaign would have.’’
Climate and transport activist Tim Jones agrees. ‘‘If you don’t give people real alternatives then maybe what will happen is they’ll feel bad about filling up at the pump, but they’ll still fill up at the pump.’’
New Zealand may be better placed to introduce such a scheme once there’s evidence the Swedish eco-labels are effective, he says. ‘‘If there was a wider programme getting those messages out, that could be one intervention.’’
As the Government plans to stimulate the economy after the Covid-19 downturn, it can’t send mixed messages on fossil fuels, Jones says.
‘‘One of my real concerns is that the Government’s shovelready projects are going to consist very substantially of yet more motorways. If we’re going to get people to burn less fuel, then we need to provide alternatives as well as not building new roads so they think ‘cars are the best’.’’