Helsinki to offer incentives for low-emission vehicles

Parking benefit proposed for greener cars

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The City of Helsinki is planning to offer incentives to drivers who exchange their old high-emission vehicles for new ones which pollute less.
      Drivers of more eco-friendly cares are to be offered a parking benefit if proposals of an air quality working group are implemented.
      The environmental working party looking into the subject proposes that a car with low emissions would be allowed to park in central Helsinki for a low annual fee.
      Under the plan, the driver of such a vehicle would pay EUR 30 a year for a permit that would release the car from other parking fees.
      Inspector Outi Väkevä of the Helsinki Environment Centre says that the benefits could come into effect in 2011.
     
Cars would not easily be granted low-emission status. To qualify, a petrol or diesel car should emit less than 110 grammes of carbon dioxide and 0.005 grammes of small particles per kilometre.
      Also qualifying for low emission status would be all cars operating on natural gas, bio-gas, and electricity.
      Last year about 1,000 cars were registered in Finland that met those standards, and only about a dozen models that would qualify for the benefit are available in Finland.
     
However, Mikael Rehula, technical advisor of the Association of Automobile Importers in Finland, says that the availability of low-emission vehicles will increase significantly in the next couple of years.
      “The best new models are now coming onto the market at the same pace as they are in other parts of Europe. The prices are also very likely to go down, but cars with the old technology are still cheaper than those with low emissions.”
     
Granting the parking benefit would cost the city about half a million euros a year.
      Leo Starnius, a climate expert of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, says that it is important that the shortfall should be recovered by raising other parking fees.
      “Emissions cannot be reduced by giving valuable urban space to motorists. If fees are not raised, it would amount to an additional subsidy of half a million for driving.”
     
Inspector Väkevä says that the benefits are not intended to be permanent; they are to be phased out as low-emission vehicles become the norm. The emission limits can also be altered as the technology develops further.
      Rehula of the Association of Automobile Importers feels that the proposal is a good one to a great extent. “The benefits are mainly tied to extensive criteria, and not to a specific technology.”
      The Swedish capital Stockholm has taken a different course. The city granted low-emission incentives to cars that can use bio-ethanol as fuel. However, the same models can also run on cheaper petrol, which means that drivers can enjoy incentives intended for low-emission cars even if they use a high-emission fuel.
     
Helsinki is also planning to set up an environmental zone in the centre of the city, which would apply to buses and waste disposal vehicles.
      “Bus transport has a powerful effect on air quality in the centre, and it is easy to influence”, says environmental inspector Väkevä.
      For instance, on Hämeentie, a major thoroughfare, one fifth of all vehicles are buses, and they accounted for 60 per cent of small particle emissions.
      The tougher emission standards are to take effect some time in in 2011. They are expected to raise the costs of mass transport operators.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Rally (driving) against climate change (22.2.2008)
  Emission-based car tax to bring down price of new vehicles next year (2.11.2007)
  Eco-cars still a fairly rare sight on Finnish roads (6.6.2005)
  Changes in vehicle taxation boost growth of cars with small engines and low emissions (17.3.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat