At a press conference of CARS21 (Competitive Automotive Regulatory System for the 21st Century) yesterday, EU industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen backed the call for a €40 billion loan to help the car industry make greener cars.Though Verhuegen's backing is important it's up to the EU member states to decide whether the car industry deserve a handout on this scale.

As we've already shown, there's no real excuse for the car industry to pull its finger out and get on with the business of making efficient cars.

©Greenpeace/Reynaers

The €40 billion subsidy they've asked for will have to come from European citizens - so they're asking us for cash up front to help them build the cars that we know they already can if they put their minds and their production lines to it.

Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace EU transport policy campaigner, is outraged. "Car manufacturers are crying wolf and presenting inflated costs for reducing their CO2 emissions, while utterly disregarding the significant benefits of more fuel efficient cars to consumers," she said. "Instead of responding to demands from the public for cleaner cars, carmakers want to continue to milk the taxpayer and are asking for more government subsidies."

As long as carmakers duck their responsibility to reduce CO2 emissions, any loan given to them would mean subsidising climate change.