“In the hunt for a good soundbite politicians are losing sight of good policy,” said SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan.

“Ideas like banning petrol cars or slapping £2,000 on the purchase price of a new car might make headlines but offer little in the way of practical solutions to the issue of limiting climate change.”

In its eighth annual sustainability report – Towards Sustainability – the SMMT claimed annual CO2 emissions from UK car and CV manufacturing have fallen 36.5 per cent to 1.36 million tonnes in four years.

Macgowan's outburst coincides with the publication of a new report on vehicle emissions by Members of the European Parliament's Environment Committee.

The report again calls for reduced CO2 limits to be mandatory not voluntary, with such binding limits for cars introduced by 2009.

The committee also wants to set an emission level of 120g of CO2 per km by 2012 instead of carmakers' voluntary target of 140g of CO2 by 2008.