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More electric cars: higher costs for petrol and diesel-run vehicles – report

Kaukab Tahir Shairani
September 8th, 2020


This article is more than 4 years old.

Klimarådet climate council disagrees with car commission’s recommendations, whereas experts called plan “unambitious and disappointing”

How many exactly? (photo: Pixabay/UveX)

Elbilskommissionen, the electric car commission, has long been working to promote using green cars in Denmark, reports DR.

Its latest recommendations on Monday entailed proposals for raising petrol and diesel prices, a subsidy for electric car owners and a general toll of 1,000 kroner for motorists.

As per the original plan, the commission was required to make recommendations on how to lower Danish car taxes in order for customers to get more electric cars and fewer petrol and diesel-run vehicles.

And it would appear the cost of operating a petrol and diesel-run vehicle will depend on the number of electric vehicles on our roads.

By 2030, it will cost an owner of a petrol or diesel-run car an extra 400 kroner per year if politicians aim to have 500,000 electric cars, the commission concluded.

In addition, if politicians aim for 750,000 electric cars, the extra cost will rise to 2,300 kroner annually, while a million electric cars will raise it to 5,900 kroner annually.

Elbilskommissionen, however, also pointed out that the proposal does not fulfil the task as it will only remove CO2 emissions to an extent.

Climate Council disagrees
Following the report by Elbilskommissionen, the Klimarådet climate council maintained that aiming for a million electric cars on the road by 2030 is the only way to reduce greenhouse emissions by up to 70 percent.

The chair of the council, Peter Møllgaard, on the occasion, said that if this policy is not adopted, society will need to make reductions elsewhere.

Klimarådet, in its latest report, stated that the country may need 1.5 million electric cars by 2030 – depending on how much the greenhouse emissions are reduced in other sectors.

However, Elbilskommissionen’s recommendations have omitted that scenario.

Brian Vad Mathiesen, a professor of energy planning at Aalborg University, deemed the recommendations “disappointing and unambitious”.

Experts further pointed out that the commission had not been able to recommend a ‘concrete’ model towards the transition to a greener car fleet.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”