We’re not yet at a stage where a SUV driver is going to be booed while driving through a city centre. But it's starting to work. The sales of SUVs and trucks have dropped to record lows. Driving a SUV is not too cool anymore and car manufacturers are turning towards other products, like hydrogen, electric or hybrid cars.

There is no denying that image and status are important in the car business. But the main driver behind all this is the oil price.

Globally people are suffering from high energy prices. Obviously, this affects businesses and people's budgets. Hence, a call for cutting taxes for compensation, presently heard everywhere, makes perfect sense.

But from a climate change point of view, compensating professionals from the transport business and maybe even individuals by decreasing the end-user's price for fuels would be a very bad idea. People and businesses are finally realising that energy should not be taken for granted. The awareness of the costs of energy works in exactly the same direction as the climate issue and the future security of supply.

I completely understand that people and business could be damaged by high energy prices. But if authorities really want to tackle economic uncertainty and poverty, they should stay away from the energy prices and find compensation somewhere else.

Now that we have reached an energy supply tipping point, we have to remain on our sustainable path. Even if energy prices will go down again, people will remember the high fuel prices when they visit a showroom of cars. Cutting taxes would cause this recollection to fade.

Rolf de Vos
Editor in chief
GreenPrices
r.devos@greenprices.com