The 'Badvertising' campaign from the New Weather Institute think tank and the climate charity Possible showed in its report that SUVs now make up more than 4 in 10 new cars sold in UK.
Last year, the International Energy Agency said that SUVs are the second-biggest cause of the rise in global carbon dioxide emissions during the past decade with only the power sector being a bigger contributor.
On average, even the most fuel-efficient SUVs average around 20-25mpg, while less fuel-hungry sedans get anywhere from 30-40mpg.
The New Weather Institute said that over 150,000 new cars being sold in the UK in 2019 were too big to even fit in a standard parking space and blamed the trend towards ever-larger, more fuel-hungry vehicles on the “corporate marketing strategies of big car brands”.
The average emissions from new cars sold in the UK have actually increased for the last four years in a row due to this trend, with big car brands “disproportionately...