MEPs set to delay CO2 cuts for cars

The European Parliament looks set to award carmakers an extra three years breathing space to implement heavy cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, to the outrage of Green MEPs, who insist that the whole EU climate strategy will be jeopardised if the automobile industry is let off the hook.

A vote in Parliament, on 24 October, is likely to give backing to stricter CO2 targets for vehicle manufacturers but with longer deadlines, according to UK Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies, who is in charge of steering the Commission’s proposal through Parliament. 

“What will go through on Wednesday is a cut to 125 grams by 2015,” he said on 19 October, adding: “I know we have a majority for that…Even the Germans, who are lobbying hardest against this legislation, can live with that.” 

The Commission’s original proposal suggested that manufacturers should be made to reduce average car emissions from current levels of 160g/km to 130g/km by 2012 through improvements in vehicle technology alone, and that other players, including tyre makers, fuel suppliers, repairers, drivers and public authorities, should be required to contribute to a further 10g/km reduction. 

However, Davies insists that carmakers should bear full responsibility for the cuts and that any complementary measures, such as the use of biofuels, should be “entirely supplementary”. On the other hand, he thinks the 2012 deadline is “too early” and would prove “too costly”. 

Green MEPs have however called on MEPs to be firm on the goals, with the German rapporteur for the industry committee, Rebecca Harms, stressing: “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.” 

According to an independent study prepared for the Greens group, the car sector would have to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80-100 million tonnes in the next 13 years in order for the EU to meet its overall goal of slashing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020. The report adds that only a 120g/km by 2012 target and a strong follow-up limit value (of maybe 80g/km) in 2020 can achieve that. 

On the other hand, a three-year delay would more than halve the expected benefits of the proposals, it claims. 

MEPs will debate Davies’ report on 22 October before voting on the 24th. The Commission is due to announce concrete legislative proposals in early 2008, once Parliament and the Council have agreed on the general strategy. 

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