Prague - Environment Minister Martin Bursík plans a "green revolution". However, only for the government's car fleet so far.
Bursík wants one quarter of the government cars to use bio-fuel or to produce minimal amount of emissionsby the end of 2013. Old cars should begin to be replaced by ecologically friendly cars as early as next year.
Environment Ministry is now waiting for other state institutions to express their comments and opinions. However, since Bursík's general idea of "green government cars" was already approved by the government a year ago, it is likely that these more concrete proposals won't meet resistance from the cabinet either.
Minister Bursík believes that the state should be a vanguard of a general environmentally friendly approach. "The public service sector should lead by example and stimulate a clean-car market with its acquisition," explains a proposal Aktuálně.cz was able to review.
A five thousand cars in the first year
Bursík's program expects that regional authorities and city halls will voluntarily join in the project.
Altogether, there are more than 19,000 vehicles used by state employees. If vehicles used by members of public administration are included, the number grows to roughly 100 thousand cars.
Environment Ministry expects that state and public authorities should acquire first 5,000 cars with environmentally friendly gears next year. The overall plan is to have 25,000 "green vehicles" of the total 100,000 cars by the year 2014.
Bio-fuels or limited emissions
It is the old state cars in questionable condition that are to be replaced by new "green" ones. Almost three quarters of the cars used by public servants are older than four years.
Not only cars that burn compressed natural gas or have hybrid propulsion, but also vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel but produce limited amount of emissions are to be used by the state and public authorities.
According to analysis made by Environment Ministry, there are several tens of ecological cars in the market, most of them offered by Citroen, Fiat, Renault and Ford.
Ecological cars are more expensive than conventional vehicles, but less consuming.
Aimed at the public
The ministry doesn't try to hide that the main goal is to persuade enterprises and private persons to buy economical vehicles as well. State-used cars constitute only about 0.5 percent of the total number of vehicles registered in the Czech Republic.
"Without the public following our example, it won't be possible to see the program as successful enough," the proposal document states.
There are still fewer cars in the Czech Republic in comparison with the "old" EU countries, and the ministry expects further increase of motorists in the country.
That's why Environment Ministry plans a campaign that would propagate environmentally friendly vehicles. "Making the program public is the key to success," assured the ministry.
