European transport lobby group, Transport & Environment (T&E) has sent an open letter to European environment ministers, ahead of a their Environment Council meeting on Monday, at which they will discuss proposed new standards for CO2 emissions from cars.
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T&E called on ministers to set long-term CO2 targets of 80g/km in 2020 and 60g/km in 2025, and called for legislation to be based on the footprint of vehicles, rather than the weight of vehicles, as is currently proposed. T&E also called for penalties of EUR150 per gram of CO2 exceeded from 2012.
Long-term targets are needed, says T&E, to be in line with the EU’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20-30% by 2020, and to reduce the EU’s dependency on oil imports, which are currently approaching 90%.
T&E pointed out in its letter that the Environment Council has invited the Commission to propose a long-term objective for average greenhouse gas emissions from road vehicles from 2020, but the Commission proposal currently contains no such target.
The current European Commission proposal allows for different average limits be set for manufacturers of larger cars, based on the weight of those cars. T&E says it believes that Europe should have a fleet average standard for all cars sold in a given year without distinction between classes of car. However, it says that if a parameter-based system is introduced, the parameter should be footprint (ie the size of the vehicle on the road). It notes that the European Commission’s own impact assessment shows that the footprint parameter is as neutral from a competition point of view as the weight parameter.
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By GlobalDataFinally T&E calls for penalties of EUR150 per gram as of 2012. The European Commission is currently proposing lower penalties for a transition period between 2012 and 2014. “We would like to stress that the EUR20, 35 and 60 levels of penalties as proposed by the Commission for 2012-14 is well below the penalty level in the EU ETS of EUR100 per tonne of CO2,” wrote T&E.
European environment ministers are generally much more supportive of stiffer measures than parliament members, who will ultimately vote on legislation. Nevertheless, with climate change moving up the political agenda, it seems that they are increasingly being listened to.
