Climate change and cars: New study shows only strict binding emissions limits for cars will enable EU to meet overall climate targets
The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament today presented an independent study* (by Albert Schmidt and CPC-Berlin) showing how to tackle the damaging CO2emissions from cars. The study reveals that only with strict limit values for passenger cars will the EU be able to meet its overall CO2reduction target and how the so-called 'integrated approach', being promoted by the car industry, cannot work.
The study gives a comparison of the actual CO2reductions that would be achieved through the different emissions limit values currently under debate, which reveals that only with a 120 g/km limit for 2012 and a strong follow-up limit value in 2020, will the necessary emissions reductions from passenger cars be achieved. The EU will have to reduce its overall emissions by around 830 million tonnes if it is to meet its base target of a 20% reduction by 2020. Given passenger cars already account for around 12% of overall EU CO2 emissions, this means the sector will have to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80-100 million tonnes. The limit values being proposed by car makers and by the Commission would fall far short from delivering this reduction. Commenting on this, German Green and rapporteur for the EP Industry Committee on tackling CO2emissions from cars Rebecca Harms said:
"This study shows that only with strict and binding CO2emissionslimit values for car makers, starting with a 120 g/km limit for 2012, will the EU achieve the necessary reduction in emissions from cars to ensure it can meet its climate targets. There has been political agreement on this limit value for more than ten years; if we let carmakers off the hook again, the whole EU climate strategy will be jeopardised."
The study also shows how the necessary reductions can be achieved using existing technology and dispels the myth of the 'integrated approach' to emissions reductions being propagated by the automobile industry. Green MEP Claude Turmes added:
"Some carmakers have continually cried wolf about their inability to meet the emissions limits they themselves previously accepted. This study reveals that ambitious reductions are already achievable if the car industry stops stalling. It also reveals the 'integrated approach' being plugged by the industry for what it is: a smokescreen that would allow them to shirk responsibility for tackling the pollution from the cars they manufacture. Clearly this means changing the practice, by German manufacturers in particular, to build ever-bigger gas guzzlers but there is also an opportunity for European carmakers to steal a march on their competitors by pioneering more efficient cars."
Editors note:
* Click here for the political summary and here for the study.
