Greenpeace point their hoof at Porsche

The folks at Greenpeace have banded together once again, called in sick at the organic food farm, jumped in the horse and cart and headed over to Zuffenhausen Germany to hassle Porsche about global warming.

They claim that Porsche cars are “Climate Pigs” and even decked a Porsche Cayenne Turbo out in pink pig livery to get their message across.

Fresh from a recent visit to BMW the Greenpeace protesters claim that manufacturers like Porsche and BMW build cars that are too heavy and too powerful but their main concern is Porsche’s reluctance to agree to a flat European CO2 emissions limit that would apply to all vehicles made by all manufacturers.

The very idea of applying one CO2 emissions limit to all types of vehicles is completely irrational for the most obvious of reasons. Porsche have suggested a staggered system that sets maximum emission levels on a per vehicle class basis.

Porsche countered the Greenpeace rhetoric with banners of their own, one of which made some simple points. Entitled “Good to know” the Porsche banner did a wonderful job of cutting the Greenpeace sensationalism down a peg or three.

"Porsche's contribution to CO2 emissions in traffic less than 0.1 per cent. "

"Porsche has the lowest CO2 emissions per horsepower."

"Porsche will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20 per cent by the year 2012."

"Porsche is introducing the hybrid engine: less than 9 litres fuel consumption on 100 km."

Given that the car has always been the ‘easy target’ for tree huggers and governments alike it is interesting to note some rather eye-opening figures quoted by Porsche in their ‘Greenpeace’ press release. Only 12 percent of all exhaust emissions in Germany are attributable to passenger cars and of that 12 percent Porsche cars are responsible for less than one-tenth of one percent. Power stations account for 43 percent, industry accounts for 16 per cent and households account for 14 percent.

So if you really want to make a difference Greenpeace, go home and turn out the lights.