EU agrees to cut car emissions
Greenwise Staff
2nd December 2008
The EU has agreed that European car manufacturers will have to cut vehicle emissions by 18 percent within the next six years.
MEPs came to an agreement late on Monday (December 1) that would see carbon dioxide emissions from new cars cut to 130 grams per km (0.6 mile) between 2014 and 2015.
The provisional deal has yet to be approved by the European Parliament and European Union nations before being enacted, but is not expected to change greatly.
The European Commission had been seeking emission reductions by 2012, but the compromise deal was sought because of the problems being faced by the European car industry in the global economic crisis. It means car-makers have longer to meet their emission targets and will face a moderate system of fines.
“This deal represents a balance between the needs of the environment and the car industry across Europe, which is suffering massively at the moment,” British Conservative lawmaker Martin Callanan told the Reuters news service on Monday.
Under the EU deal, car manufacturers that exceed their targets by a long way will face fines of £81 (€95) per gram per car sold, but those that miss them by less than three grams will be fined between £4 (€5) and £21 (€25).
The EU agreed the compromise under the proviso that carmakers would meet more ambitious targets of around 40 percent to 95 grams per km by 2020.
Environmenal campaigners said it fell well short of was was needed to tackle climate change.
Friends of the Earth's Senior Transport Campaigner Tony Bosworth said: "This is a depressing outcome on a vital piece of climate legislation - it's riddled with delays, loopholes and concessions. Instead of forcing the car industry to put its foot down and speed up progress in making smarter cars that use less fuel, EU politicians have caved in to industry lobbying and allowed it to coast along at its own pace for a few more years."
The deal follows the announcement last week that the EC would fund the European car manufacturing industry to the tune of £4 billion (€5 billion) to develop greener cars.
The scheme was part of a broader £171 billion (€200 billion) European stimulus package announced by EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to rescue Europe's ailing economy.