Mygreenwheels

TimesOnline reports that Europe's luxury carmakers are under threat from new regs on carbon dioxide emissions, so it may soon be the day to kiss the limousine goodbye. A tragic thought for my home town of Edinburgh, favourite destination of the Hen Party, where bouncing limos full of young and tipsy girlish pulchritude are a frequent feature of the weekend landscape.

Officials in Brussels are planning to limit the average carbon-dioxide emissions of new vehicles sold in Europe after 2012 to 130g/km. Well, at least that should finally get rid of the Chelsea Tractors, bane of the school run in so many cities.

Even the bulk of today's small cars average just below 160g/km while manufacturers who concentrate on bigger models such as Mercedes and BMW have few cars below 180g/km. Sure, they can modify their engines and use other measures to meet the targets for just under £1,000 - not a lot to their customers - but they can't pass the cost on and have to meet the cost themselves as it's a legal requirement.

No wonder there's intense lobbying going on from the auto industry and the German government on behalf of its premium car-makers. But the EU's not in the mood to compromise. It takes the view that this move is vital to its credibility and, in any case, more efficient engines will save its citizens billions on fuel. Quite so. The European Commission is also minded to place an upper limit on CO2 output, so that could rule out the sports saloons and supercars that soften the blow of middle age for so many European businessmen. I can think of a few whose lives would be saddened by depriving them of their boy toys.

But guess who'll be leading the pack on all this CO2 reduction? I think it's going to have to be Scotland. Our own wee SNP parliament decided last year that we should have the most ambitious CO2 reducing target on this continent - 80 per cent by 2050 - so that we become the green energy capital of Europe. That works out at a stonking 3% a year. Just as well we don't have a car industry of our own lobbying like crazy to keep their gas guzzlers on the road.

What we do have though is a bus making industry. Now if they could just turn their hand to making electric buses and the occasional electric limo, how cool would that be? AND we'd still have the joy of seeing the Hen Parties stotting around our fair city every weekend.