Climate Change and the Environment

Climate Change Policy and Partnerships

Ford and the automotive industry as a whole have an important role to play in achieving climate stabilization. We take this responsibility seriously, and have based our global approach to product planning and policy participation on the science of climate stabilization, doing our part to reduce emissions significantly in order to maintain atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions at or below 450 ppm. We accept that simply “not getting worse” is not good enough. We are committed to working with all key stakeholders to promote climate change policy that helps to match vehicle technology, fuel technology and availability, and consumer demand to effectively reduce transportation sector emissions and reach climate stabilization goals. We welcome, and have worked to promote, comprehensive market-based policy approaches that will provide a coherent and effective framework for GHG emission reductions and give companies a clear understanding of their role in achieving reductions.

Clarity and consistency of fuel economy and vehicle GHG regulations is critical to our ability to plan, develop and implement new products. These regulations effectively regulate what vehicles we are allowed to build and sell.

However, light-duty trucks and passenger vehicles represent only about 11 percent of all global fossil fuel CO₂ emissions, so our industry alone cannot achieve climate stabilization. It will require major efforts by industries, government, and consumers. Even reducing the transportation sector’s contribution to climate change cannot be done by automakers alone. It will require partnership of all stakeholders, including automakers, the fuel industry, government and consumers, because effectively reducing emissions will require not only improving vehicle fuel economy, but also developing lower-carbon fuels, infrastructure to deliver those fuels, and government actions to encourage consumers to purchase these more fuel-efficient vehicles and lower-carbon fuels.

In 2012 in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finalized regulations on a national approach to vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for 2017 to 2025. Globally, however, growing budget deficits at national and regional levels have overshadowed climate policy discussions over the last several years.

In our major markets, the regulation of fuel economy and/or vehicle CO₂ emissions is becoming increasingly complex. In addition to competing federal and regional regulations, governments are taking diverse approaches to incentives for emission reductions through rebates, fees, “feebates,” privileges for low-emitting vehicles and penalties for high-emitting vehicles. At the same time, some state governments are introducing registration taxes on the same advanced vehicle technologies that assist in CO₂ reductions, to make up for the loss in tax revenues resulting from these vehicles’ reduced use of conventional fuels. This very complex policy environment is one important driver of our strategy to develop fuel-efficient and advanced-technology platforms that can be shared globally and tailored to the needs of our customers. Customer vehicle-purchasing choices are affected by vehicle incentives, fuel costs, annual registration costs as well as overall maintenance and ownership costs.

We hope that the information that follows helps to illustrate the diverse array of GHG and fuel economy regulations and incentives that are now shaping our markets. This section provides more detail on developments and Ford’s involvement in:

The map below provides a summary of the existing and proposed CO₂ emission and fuel consumption requirements and standards that vehicle manufacturers face across the globe. For each country the primary metric used in the regulation is listed, such as miles per gallon or grams of CO₂ per mile, as well as the “drive cycle” or vehicle testing process required to calculate compliance with the requirement. The map illustrates that many countries have existing or proposed CO₂ or fuel consumption requirements and that these requirements vary considerably by country and region.