Company News from yesinsurance
07 November 2006 Stern Review Prompts Insurer To Boost Support For Hybrid Vehicles
Following the launch last week of the Stern review on climate change, online insurance provider, yesinsurance.co.uk, announced today that it is increasing its contribution to the UK's first cashback scheme to encourage greener driving, which it launched last month.
The new move sees the insurer now providing £50 to the scheme for each hybrid car driver that takes out insurance. Half of the £50 incentive is paid back to the driver of the hybrid vehicle, whilst the other half is donated to the carbon offsetting organisation Climatesure.
The increase in funding from its previous level of £40 is being backdated to benefit both Climatesure and those drivers who insured their hybrid vehicles when the scheme was launched at the beginning of October.
The move to pay an additional £10 per driver comes in the wake of last week's review by Treasury economist Sir Nicholas Stern, which warned that, without radical measures to reduce carbon emissions within the next 10-15 years, there is compelling evidence to suggest that we might lose the chance to control global temperature rises. The review warned that continuation of the current model could result in a cut of up to 20% in global living standards, as well as irreversible climate changes that would bring flooding, population displacement and severe reductions in crop yields.
"We reckon that it costs around £25 to offset a year's emissions from an average family car, so we are now giving a £25 payment back to each hybrid driver who insures with us - plus we're giving the same amount to Climatesure," said Paul Purdy of yesinsurance.co.uk.
Carbon-offsetting scheme launched
yesinsurance.co.uk also announced today that it is introducing a carbon-offsetting programme for its employees' vehicles. The offset scheme covers both company vehicles and employees' own cars, whether used for company or private business.
Paul Purdy said: "Motoring is now a major contributor to global warming and employers such as ourselves have a duty to minimise their net carbon emissions. We also want to help focus attention on the fact that hybrid vehicles can help reduce the damage that motoring is causing to the environment.
"We will be making further moves to increase our input to greener motoring over the coming months and we are looking at extending this scheme to include other types of fuel efficient and low emission vehicles."
In addition to being more fuel efficient, hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius also benefit from a lower level of car tax and are exempt from the London congestion charge.
Referring to the Stern review last week, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, highlighted the importance of including environmental issues within economic planning, commenting: "In the 21st century, our new objectives will be threefold: growth, full employment and environmental care."
