A sign of what's ahead around the world with the Dutch government announcing that it plans to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 to reduce carbon emissions by 10%. Each car will be equipped with a GPS device to track the distance and how much the driver pays. Sales tax will be scrapped to offset the increase. Taxis, buses, vehicles for the disabled and classic cars will be exempted from the road tax.

It's a brave move and it will be interesting whether other governments will be prepared to bite the bullet and do the same thing. We can't afford to ignore the fact that most people will be using cars for years to come so policy makers need to have some sort of strategy in place to deal with it.

US President Barack Obama introduced new regulations in September that mandate a 40% improvement in the fuel efficiency of new cars and light trucks by 2016. But the question is whether this will go far enough to combat climate change. If it doesn't, a road tax is the only alternative.