Through Steve Sugarman in LinkedIn.com for Earth Evolution

Seven months ago, when Volkswagen admitted to fixing 11 million diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests, some suspected this was not an isolated case but rather an example of more widespread malfeasance, on par with the rate-rigging scandals that had engulfed the world’s big banks. Was this the car industry’s “Libor moment”?

So it now seems. This week Mitsubishi fessed up to cheating on emissions as well. French authorities raided Peugeot Citroen’s offices. Germany’s Daimler acknowledged that US regulators have the company in their sights. A UK government testing programreported that no other manufacturers besides VW had rigged their vehicles, but that all of their cars had higher emissions in real life than on the test track. There were calls in Australia for the government to adopt independent testing.

VW revealed that the scandal cost it at least €16.2 billion ($18.2 billion) last year. But that’s just on paper. The real cost of the scandal is the extra carbon that drivers have been unwittingly pumping into the atmosphere.

That’s especially bitter to contemplate in light of two other events this week: the signing of the COP21 emissions-reduction deal, agreed to in Paris last December, and the release of data showing that 2016, month for month, continues to be thehottest year on record. COP21 was already looking inadequate to slow global warming to safe levels. It’s worse still if we can’t even trust the data on how much carbon we’re emitting.

With any luck, the betrayal by the automakers will prompt enough consumers to agitate for change. It’s not much of a silver lining, but in a grim week for the planet all round, it’s worth grasping at. —Gideon Lichfield

My comment to Steve Sugarman’s Post: © Natalie Keshing

It was a big deal 7 months ago. So it is beneficial to the point out that they rigged the software so when testing emissions it would have a false result. I deduce that the car manufacturers rigged the software emissions system to avoid having to re-engineer the hardware in each vehicle OR to meet these requirements they did it to turn down the emissions equipment to get better fuel economy and have better acceleration. The end result more diesel released into the atmosphere. Thank you for this great article Steve Sugarman and bringing this to our attention. KeepingUInformed © Natalie Keshing