The tax rates are higher for diesel vehicles in order to address their higher impacts on local air pollution, diesel cars with particle emissions equal or above 0.005 g/km are also subject to an extra tax (EUR 250). While the vehicle taxation reform is a step forward, taxes on purchase and ownership of vehicles are less efficient than fuel taxes and road charges in reducing emissions since they are more distant from actual vehicle use. Moreover, in the Portuguese case they provide very, and possibly disproportionately, strong incentives to abate C02 emissions compared to the incentives faced in other sectors of the economy (e.g. in those participating in the EU ETS): the tax rates rapidly increase with the level of C02 emissions/km and are much higher in Portugal than in other OECD countries (OECD, 2009b). The average C02 emission rate of new cars (average C02 emissions per km) sold in Portugal has greatly declined, at 135 g/km in 2009 compared to the EU average of 154 g/km.