Electric cars

Although air transport is often - incorrectly - cited as one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, road traffic is a massively bigger contributor to climate change.

That's why the Labour Government has today announced a new scheme to encourage us all to trade in old (that is, more than 10 year-old) cars in exchange for a grant of between £2,000 and £5,000 which can be spent on a brand new electric vehicle.

Labour's car grant scheme, which is a variation of a massively successful German programme that has helped get tens of thousands of gas-guzzling, inefficient and high-polluting cars off that country's roads, will help us in our fight to cut our carbon emissions. 19% of the UK's domestic Carbon emissions are from cars - a figure second only to the agriculture industry.

And it will provide a much-needed boost for car manufacturers, struggling in the global recession.

It's coupled with a £20 million investment in electric car charging points around the country.

Electric cars can work best in urban environments like London, where congestion and speed limits mean cars can't race around, and where we have the infrastructure to provide car charging points. As well as on-street charging points, I'd like every petrol garage in London offering such points by the end of next year.

For more information on the Government's plan for cutting carbon - including Labour's Climate Change Act which made the UK the first country in the world to set legally binding emissions targets, click here

And more detail about Labour's grants for electric cars can be found here.