You started your car in the morning. You warmed up the engine. You drove off to your office. You didn’t scratch your car, hit something or made no possible damage to your or the surrounding vehicles. Sounds good, nothing went wrong. Or did it?
A combustion vehicle burns fuel. Burning fuel means the production of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide as a byproduct of the burning process. CO2 is emitted in the atmosphere, gradually making it a more dangerous place to live in than the ricers and terrorists.
If you’ve ever seen an international review of a vehicle, the details such as the engine and mileage also include the CO2 emissions stats. Why? Because vehicles run in the European countries mostly have to pay Co2 taxes. They pay for the damages they make to the environment which discourages people to uselessly drive their vehicles and the government can make necessary procedures to clean the environment.
These policies proved helpful initially but due to the rapidly multiplying population of the world, the CO2 emissions are just suppressed, but not ended. Our environment, being vulnerable to the dangers of exceeding CO2 and diminishing Oxygen has to be contained from being toxic for the living objects.
So, when the Environmental Communities could foresee a not-so-safe future for the World, they introduced control-standards for the production side of the Automobiles. Automobile producers today have to comply with the government described vehicles fuel consumption standards. Below, I’ll be highlighting the key countries that have set optimum parameters of a production vehicle, which can only be presented for sale in the market if it complies with them.
US of A:
CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) agency sets standards for the American automotive industry regarding the fuel consumption patterns of cars. The purpose of CAFE agency is to reduce the energy consumption by increasing the fuel economy of cars and light trucks. The currently implemented regulations state that the cars should average a 27.5 mpg (11km/l) and light trucks 23.5 mpg (9.5km/l). New policy which has been drafted by 2010 states that the new standard for model year 2016 are at an average of 14.2km/l for all vehicles.
European Union:
The 28 members of the European Union had initially agreed upon a target of 39 mpg (15.6km/l) which has been further brought up by 16.2km/l for today’s standards.
China:
China introduced fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles in September 2004 targeting a fuel consumption of 14.5km/l by 2015.
India:
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency in India has set new standards for fuel efficiency for passenger vehicles (hatchbacks, sedans, SUV’s, MPV’s etc.) must have an average fuel efficiency of 18.2 km/l
Pakistan:
No particular check and balance for the current automobile producers has been set for here in Pakistan.
The political instability, which our country has been facing for the last few decades is one of the major reason why we lack the ability to cater with a situation like this. The temple run scenario, for the lust if power is not only damaging our country’s reputation Internationally, but it is also damaging the health and environment of our beloved Pakistan. Massive taxes are imposed upon the purchase, registration of new/used vehicles, heavy duties are fixed on the import of automobiles and related parts but nobody is being thoughtful about this. We are damaging the environment, we are damaging the future. We might live a full life or we might not, but the air we are damaging is surely going to take its toll on the future generations.
Setting such standards would prove to be beneficial in so many ways, you can afford to refuel your car, I can afford to refuel mine, but there are numerous people out there who have to think a hundred times before making a transaction. They have to sacrifice so many things just to refuel their motorcars and bikes. Setting such standards would allow people to at least get the mileage they deserve, travel more in less fuel, emit less toxic fumes and save the environment. The gas guzzlers we get here, they are outdated. A Suzuki Swift in India return 25km/l to a litre, a Honda City returns at least 18-19km/l and so on. The current Hybrid vehicle trend is a very good thing and I appreciate the trend but the Hybrid vehicles hardly account for 2% in the total number of vehicles in Pakistan. Why does a serious issue like this is not addressed in this country? We are a part of this world. We need to be as much concerned for this matter as every other country is. I request the concerned authorities to take a look into this matter and make necessary actions, we don’t only need a peaceful Pakistan, we also need a GREEN Pakistan.
Government is not able to regulate fuel for consistent quality. Even if fuel saving standard is introduced, the results could never be matched because the fuel quality is not consistent from day to day and location to location, on top of that metering devices on many petrol pumps are also tampered so you never know the real amount of fuel going in the tank is.
We do not want another pain for us in form of some government regulation to increase the suffering of mortals rather than decrease it.
The primary problem with increasing fuel economy is the quality of fuel. If vehicles are designed for fuel economy, the quality of fuel would need to be higher as well. This is something the common Pakistani is not willing to pay for, nor the oil companies who would have to invest a significant amount to increase the quality of fuel.
Furthermore, if our vehicles are tested on standard lab equipment, the results would indicate a very high fuel economy considering the small engine sizes.
To conclude, the fuel economy could ve regulated by the government but the tests would also need to be standardized if we are to get reliable results.
Our prime minister is the guy who praises his train project by admiring its toilets. Do you really think he can think of Pakistan’s future?
Toilet is a very important part of life. Specially for a country which is muslim by constitution and cleanliness/purity is half the faith, the apathetic attitude towards providing hygienic bathroom facilities and failproof system is amazingly antisocial. This is why people are found urinating and defecating in the bushes or under the walls – because you know when it has to come out it has to come out. No compromise on shit.
Specially the situation of toilets in governments and private schools is very bad. When the toilet is unclean, smelly, dark and frightening, the child will not go to use the toilet. When all their effort is spent just to control the urine/potty from leaking out, the best teachers, best books, best classrooms will fail because the kid cannot concentrate on the LCM, algebra and grammar. The focus of their life is just to control their bladder and bowel. One of the reasons we are so far back in the educational performance is that despite good classrooms, good syllabus and good teachers the attitude towards toilet needs of the students is cruel. Therefore everyday he/she spends majority of his/her time thinking, “The toilet is dirty, it is dark, it has no water, I don’t want to go there, I just want to go home to use that toilet”. In this situation the kid is very miserable, he/she shifts his/her weight from one hip to the other and continually flexes and contracts his/her anal sphincter and/or kegel because the only thought on his/her mind is, “How can I control the pressure. My urine/feces is going to burst out in front of all my classmates. I will get embarrassed. How do I stop my urine from leaking out in front of everybody? How do I stop my potty? My tummy is hurting so bad, I just want to go home to use the bathroom”.
@Waqas Ghazanfar’s point is understood, but it was high time we as a nation understood the need for availability of usable toilet facilities. Even in the train if the passengers are spending time controlling their pee or potty, the train will lose all appeal. There is something in toilet that the world’s richest man Bill Gates has found it reasonable enough to redirect his energies towards research of clean toilet facilities.
You are a legend, Sir.
You know if u are one of his supporter, it was a very lame comment
& also that i havent even read this crap because i dont have that much expendable time
My 1988 Toyota Corolla has a I-C engine (originally the car had a petrol engine). During winters in does 14km/l. These days it does 11.5km/l with the A/C. Could someone tell me if this average is good or bad?
wow, this is the first time i’ve ever heard of consumption to be important to the govt. imo, emissions is much better to standard than consumption. anyway, that’s just my opinion.