Norway says cars neither "green" nor "clean"

"By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - No car can be "green," "clean" or "environmentally
friendly," according to some of the world's strictest advertising
guidelines set to enter into force in Norway next month.

"Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage
than others," Bente Oeverli, a senior official at the office of the
state-run Consumer Ombudsman, told Reuters on Thursday.

Carmakers such as Toyota, General Motor's Opel, Mitsubishi, Peugeot
Citroen, Saab and Suzuki had all used phrases this year in
advertisements that the watchdog judged misleading, she said.

One Toyota advertisement for a Prius, for instance, described the
gasoline-electric hybrid as "the world's most environmentally friendly
car."

"If someone says their car is more 'green' or 'environmentally
friendly' than others then they would have to be able to document it
in every aspect from production, to emissions, to energy use, to
recycling," she said.

"In practice that can't be done," she said of tougher guidelines
entering into force in Norway from October 15.

The guidelines distributed to carmakers said: "We ask that ... phrases
such as 'environmentally friendly', 'green', 'clean', 'environmental
car', 'natural' or similar descriptions not be used in marketing
cars."

Carmakers would risk fines if they failed to drop the words. Oeverli
said she did not know of other countries going so far in cracking down
on cars and the environment." Continued...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL0671323420070906

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