Queensland has killed off the earlier Labor state authorities’s mandate to interchange all eligible authorities passenger automobiles with zero-emissions automobiles by December 2026.
As a substitute, the state’s Liberal Nationwide Get together (LNP) authorities has launched a brand new technique that units a smaller 10 per cent emissions discount goal throughout your entire public service fleet by 2030, slightly than specializing in changing particular person automobiles with EVs.
The Sunshine State’s public works, housing and youth minister Sam O’Connor mentioned the Queensland Authorities’s broader method to chopping car emissions throughout its whole fleet would have an even bigger influence on complete CO2 emissions and provides public servants extra freedom to buy the kind of QFleet automobiles they want.
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In a press launch late final week, Mr O’Connor mentioned Labor’s EV-only coverage for eligible passenger automobiles solely coated round 3600 automobiles throughout authorities, but QFleet operates greater than 11,000 automobiles as a part of frontline providers together with nursing, housing, little one security and youth justice.
The Queensland Authorities mentioned the up to date coverage, which permits for fit-for-purpose automobiles whether or not they’re all-electric, hybrid or plug-in hybrid, will cut back emissions to their lowest ever ranges whereas the general public service fleet experiences unprecedented progress.
It says the brand new method may also present extra time for businesses to put in charging infrastructure whereas nonetheless delivering on a ten per cent tailpipe emissions discount goal by 2030, which Mr O’Connor mentioned will equate to three.33 kilotonnes of CO2.
“This represents round 63 per cent discount in emissions from what QFleet’s emissions have been in 2005,” he mentioned.
“We’re not right here to tick bins – we’re right here to give attention to outcomes.
“We’ve laid out a real pathway to cut back tailpipe emissions and higher assist the hardworking public servants who depend on QFleet to get them to the place they must be.”
As a part of the Queensland authorities’s new QFleet Car Emissions Discount Technique 2025-2030, there will likely be annual fleet critiques, improved journey planning and the usage of lower-emissions E10 fuels, and every company will likely be held accountable for lowering their emissions.
“Our new technique strikes past merely mandating one kind of car for procurement,” mentioned Mr O’Connor.
“Concurrently our emissions will likely be reducing, our fleet will see annual progress of round 1.5 per cent per yr – equating to round 9 per cent progress over the interval of the ten per cent discount in emissions.
“Meaning whereas our fleet will likely be bigger than ever, our emissions will likely be decrease than ever.
“Not like the earlier mandate, we’re lowering QFleet’s tailpipe emissions in a sensible, sustainable means, which responds to suggestions from public servants throughout Queensland.
“QFleet is main by instance to assist Queensland obtain internet zero.”
The Queensland Authorities’s transfer was swiftly welcomed by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), which has been vocal in its criticism of EV mandates and the federal authorities’s New Car Effectivity Normal (NVES) particularly.
Echoing claims by Toyota that a number of powertrain electrification applied sciences – led by hybrids in its case – have a bigger general influence on complete new-vehicle CO2 discount than EVsFCAI chief govt Tony Weber described the 2025-2030 QFleet emissions discount plan as “a balanced and real looking method to decarbonising the state’s transport fleet”.
“The Queensland Authorities has recognised that the very best pathway for emissions discount is to utilise a spread of car applied sciences slightly than focusing solely on battery electrical automobiles,” Mr Weber mentioned.
“For the reason that introduction of the Commonwealth Authorities’s New Car Effectivity Normal earlier this yr, we’ve got extra info and proof relating to the challenges of shifting to a lower-emission fleet of automobiles on Australian roads.
“Proper now, Australian shoppers stay hesitant to the change though greater than 90 battery-electric automobiles can be found.
“The Queensland Authorities has listened to its QFleet prospects and recognised that it may well present extra alternative whereas nonetheless delivering significant emissions reductions.
“It displays the real-world challenges of car deployment and offers extra time for growth of the infrastructure wanted to underpin long-term change.”
Queensland’s earlier Zero Emission Car Motion Plan 2022-2024 was only one a part of the Zero Emission Car technique 2022-2032 introduced by the previous Labor state authorities in March 2022.
As a part of its “dedication to assist Queensland’s shift to zero internet emissions by 2050”, the state’s 10-year emissions discount technique additionally referred to as for 50 per cent of latest passenger car gross sales within the state to be zero-emissions by 2030, earlier than shifting to 100 per cent by 2036.
It additionally referred to as for each new TransLink-funded bus added to the fleet to be a zero-emissions car in South East Queensland by 2025, and throughout regional Queensland by 2030.
The Queensland LNP has repeatedly distanced itself from the earlier Labor authorities’s bold local weather insurance policies because it got here to energy in October 2024.
Quickly after he turned premier, David Crisafulli introduced the state would assist the federal authorities’s 2050 internet zero emissions plan however would reject set renewables targets by dropping necessities for milestones alongside the best way.
The LNP additionally axed an “unviable” multi-billion-dollar pumped hydro undertaking deliberate for Mackay, and cancelled the $1 billion Moonlight Wind Farm undertaking, whereas opening extra alternatives for gasoline and coal growth within the northern state.
Queensland’s rollback of public service EV mandates comes after US President Donald Trump in January eliminated his predecessor’s mandate for half of all new-vehicle purchases to be EVs by 2030.
And simply final week President Trump signed congressional resolutions overturning California’s capability to mandate EV gross sales and set up its emissions requirements by way of a federal waiver, instantly halting the state’s 2035 ban on new combustion-powered car gross sales.
As well as, California will likely be unable to implement a rise in zero-emission heavy-duty truck gross sales, or a low-nitrogen oxide regulation for heavy-duty freeway and off-road automobiles.
Nevertheless, 17 different states accounting for 30 per cent of the US auto market have additionally adopted some or all of California’s stricter car emissions requirements, and plenty of of them are becoming a member of the authorized enchantment flagged final month by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Aside from Queensland, a number of different Australian states additionally successfully have EV ‘highway maps’, with the nation’s largest two by inhabitants – New South Wales and Victoria – each aiming for zero-emissions automobiles to account for no less than 50 per cent of all new gentle car gross sales in every state by 2030.
Australians purchased a document 91,292 new EVs in 2024, accounting for 7.4 per cent of the 1.237 million new automobiles offered on this nation final yr.
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