Limits on vehicle emissions proposed by Europe - earth - 07 February 2007 - New Scientist Environment

Limits on vehicle emissions proposed by Europe

A proposal to enforce limits on the emissions of new cars and vans sold in the European Union has finally been put forward by the European Commission (EC) after a two-week delay.
The legislation, if adopted by member states, would make it mandatory for new cars sold in the EU to produce on average 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre travelled by 2012. Vehicles currently emit an average of 163 g/km.
The move follows the poor performance with regard to voluntary targets set in 1999. At the time, European carmakers were asked to reach a 140 g/km target by 2008, while Japanese and Korean industries were set the same target for 2009.
An October 2006 report by the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that only Fiat, Citroen, Renault, Ford and Peugeot were on track to meet the target.
"The strategy has brought only limited progress," said the EC on Wednesday. Between 1995 and 2004, average emissions for new cars in the EU fell from 186 g/km to 163 g/km.
More, bigger
Despite improvements in vehicle technology, more and bigger cars mean that emissions from road transport actually rose by 26% between 1990 and 2004. The sector is now responsible for around 12% of the EU's total CO2 emissions.
The measures proposed by the EC are:
• A legislative framework to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans will be proposed by the EC by the end of 2007 or at the latest by mid-2008
• Average emissions from new cars sold in the EU would have to drop to 120 g/km by 2012
• This target would be achieved mostly through improvements in vehicle technology, which would have to reduce average emissions to the 130 g/km level. Other measures would make up the remaining 10 g/km. These would include improvements in tyres and air conditioning systems to reduce fuel consumption, and a gradual reduction in the fossil fuel content of gasoline, notably through greater use of biofuels
• For vans, the average emission targets would be 175 g/km by 2012 and 160 g/km by 2015, compared with actual average emissions of 201 g/km in 2002
• The EC will support research efforts to further reduce emissions from new cars to an average of 95 g/km by 2020
• The purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles will be promoted by, for example, encouraging the reduction of car taxes for low-emission models
• The EC will invite car manufacturers to sign up to an EU code of good practice on car marketing and advertising by mid-2007 to promote more sustainable consumption patterns
The proposal was initially expected two weeks ago, but was delayed by disagreement. EC environment commissioner Stavros Dimas has been a strong advocate of mandatory limits on the industry, but he came up against industry commissioner Günter Verheugen, who said the legislation would put makers of large, high-performance vehicles at an unfair disadvantage.
Compromise struck
It was expected that the initial proposal would place all responsibility for meeting the targets on car manufacturers, who contested that others, such as tyre makers, should be also held accountable. The final proposal appears to have struck a compromise.
The car industry expressed concerns at Wednesday's proposal. A spokesman for Toyota said the company shared the objective of reducing emissions from cars, but added that "any new target below 140 g/km, coming so soon after [the Japanese deadline of] 2009, will represent a very challenging task for car makers".
A Renault spokesperson said the CO2 proposals would cost carmakers on average an extra €3000 (£2000) per vehicle and it remained to be seen how that extra cost would be dealt with.
The EC has not discussed what penalties carmakers will suffer if they fail to meet the targets.
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