MEPs signal tough line on car CO2

The industry committee is taking a tougher line than the CommissionThe European Parliament's industry committee has backed proposals to sharply cut CO2 emissions from cars, but failed to specify a deadline.
The committee is the first of several that will be commenting on a European Commission plan for a 20% cut in average car emissions by 2012.
The industry committee called for a bigger cut, of 25%.
It did not support a proposal to give industry longer - until 2015 - to reach the target.
The European Commission is proposing legislation to ensure that the average car sold in 2012 emits no more than 130g of CO2 per kilometre, 32g less than the average car in 2005.
In today's vote, the industry committee called for future legislation to effectively reward best performance in vehicle efficiency
Rebecca Harms MEP
Timeline: Car CO2 crackdown British Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies, who has written a report for the environment committee, has suggested a tougher limit of 120g per kilometre, but by 2015 instead of 2012.
The author of the industry committee opinion, German Green MEP Rebecca Harms, said she was pleased its members "supported plans to introduce binding limits for passenger car CO2 emissions and rejected proposals to postpone their introduction to 2015".
However, the committee did not name 2012 or any other year as a deadline for the 120g limit to come into force.
Ms Harms added: "In today's vote, the industry committee called for future legislation to effectively reward best performance in vehicle efficiency and to ensure incentives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the vehicle fleet."
The committee confirmed the European Parliament's "earlier position of limits in the order of 80-100g CO2/km in the medium term", she said.
The environment committee will consider Chris Davies' report in September, before a vote in the full parliament in October.
The parliament's economy, transport and internal market committees are all expected to table opinions.
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