Climate package negotiations: Car emissions rules emerge as first casualty of climate package scale-back
Green MEPs have criticised an agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council on new legislation to set limits on CO2 emissions from cars. The outcome of this evening's final 'trialogue' negotiations will be not only to delay the CO2 emissions limits but also to weaken penalties aimed at ensuring compliance. Greens/EFA shadow draftswoman on the legislation and vice-chair of the EP Climate Committee Rebecca Harms said:
"The proposed new rules on CO2 emissions from cars are the first casualty of the scaled back ambition on the EU climate package. The agreement reached in these trialogue negotiations will result in legislation that falls far short of what is necessary to deliver on the EU's climate goals and, in effect, rewards car makers for failing to deliver on targets they committed to ten years ago.
"The agreement will in practice mean that after 15 years of talking, the EU target to limit CO2 emissions from cars to 120g /km by 2012 is watered-down and postponed to 2015. To add insult to injury, the financial penalties for non-compliance have been cut to a fraction of what would have been necessary to provide an incentive for manufacturers to comply. This means that, in practice, the target is unlikely to be met before 2019.
"The European Parliament draftsman and head negotiator's claim that the agreement on a medium term emissions target (of 95 g/km by 2020) is a real success is misguided. The 2020 target as it was agreed is not binding but needs another co-decision procedure 6 years from now to confirm it. In addition, given the emissions reductions demanded of car manufacturers until 2019 are scaled back, it is a mystery how they would be expected to make such a big cut the following year.
"The compromise proposal agreed in the negotiations provides for double and triple-counting for specific technology types and, outrageously, for special derogations for the most exclusive vehicle models. This flies in the face of good law-making.
"It is grossly misleading to suggest publicly that these measures will address the climate impact of cars. This agreement is an act of poor wizardry disguising business as usual as climate policy."
