After three months of our campaign to turn VW away from the Dark Side, millions of views to our campaign film and over 440,000 Jedi emails and phone calls later, Volkswagen have finally responded to us with a letter.
But sadly their letter makes little mention of what Greenpeace is asking them to do – to stop using their lobbying muscle to oppose two key climate laws.
VW are lobbying against an EU wide reduction in CO2 emissions of 30% by 2020. In their letter they once again refuse to join progressive businesses like Google and Unilever in supporting the target which would boost Europe's economy and create new, green jobs. They also make no response to our request that they stop lobbying against car efficiency laws which would save motorists money, as well as helping the planet. If as they state, they 'struggle against literally every single gram of CO2' why won't they support effective climate standards?
Volkswagen hide behind their claims of developing highly efficient technology. As the biggest car company in Europe (soon to be the largest in the world) Volkswagen have the technology and also the responsibility to lead the way and produce cleaner cars. But the technology they refer to in their letter was only in 6% of the cars they sold last year – and at a huge mark up of £1000. Their letter makes no promise to introduce it more widely, or at the cost price of £250.
In their letter VW try to fob us off with the suggestion of an annual meeting to discuss their progress. But we won't be going away. We'll keep pushing Volkswagen to stop opposing urgent climate laws which will help us end our addiction to oil, and save the pristine Arctic from being plundered to fill our cars.
Read our response to Volkswagen (PDF translated from German).
