Looks like a banger really is greener than a Prius!

A lot of countries are considering schemes where people are paid cash to buy new, supposedly greener cars. Well, it is indeed true that newer cars produce fewer smog-producing emissions, and some of them are better on fuel, but even taking these into account this may not wash:

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is lobbying Mandelson to ape a German scheme and offer British motorists a £2,000 "cash-back" if they will scrap their old car and buy a new one. Just to help out the car-makers. Mandelson has let it be known he is considering the idea.

My Guardian colleague, George Monbiot, laid into this scam in his column this week. Yes, he says, modern cars are slightly greener than old bangers (though much of that gain is lost because we insist on buying more powerful vehicles). But that £2,000 could deliver far more emissions reductions if it were invested in public transport, or low-energy lightbulbs, or nuclear power plants or, well, almost anything else you care to mention.

But there is another aspect to this, raised briefly by George. What about the carbon footprint of manufacturing that new car? Here is where the real greenwash lies in the Mandelson plan for cash-back on old bangers. For apart from giving up the car altogether — which I recommend — the greenest thing you can do is to keep the old vehicle for as many extra years as you can manage.

From the Guardian. Of course, when the auto industry is crumbling, this is not a popular viewpoint, but from an environmental perspective those cash payments just don't wash.