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@Buffalo_Bill
Well, technically it's not. True road-pricing would charge per distance travelled. Like motorways in France.
The C Charge is a one-off charge, which is a regressive tax, and provides an incentive to drive more once you have paid the charge. Road-pricing would make more sense, as more miles travelled = higher tax. However, this is technically a very hard tax to enforce at local level, as it requires tracking of vehicle movements - probably via GPS and chipped vehicles.
But the best tax of all, if your aim is to reduce petrol consumption, is a tax on fuel.
Oh wait, we had one of those - and it was sunk by lorry drivers and their mates. Anyone with an eye on the proven reserves of oil companies and OPEC will know that the price of petrol is only going to go one way - ever increasing demand + limited and falling supply = higher prices. OK, there may be some evidence that the current price is being driven by some speculative trading, but the long view is that there is only so much oil in the ground. So a government that encouraged its economy with incentives to use less fuel now, before the price goes to $200/barrel, would be doing everyone a favour. But was the public encourage to see the big picture? No, instead we were subjected to a lot of nonsense about how petrol is essential, that people's livelihoods depend on cheap petrol etc. Of course, the economy, as currently configured, depends on cheap petrol. All the more reason to make radical changes now, while we still can.
Green taxes have poor credibility right now. Look at the fuss over rubbish charges. People hate them. The principle is clear, land-fill is a limited resource, and consumers need to produce less waste if we are ever to get to grips with the problem. But how to encourage them to do so? Education is good, but taxes do change behaviour, if they are correctly framed.