Compromise reached on lowering car CO2 emissions

MEPs and member states reached a compromise agreement on new rules for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars, postponing a limit of 95g/km for all new cars until 2021 from 2020, after pressure from Germany forced the scrapping of an original deal reached in June.

The deal agreed this week also gives more flexibility to car manufacturers, which will be able to use “supercredits” from low emission vehicles in their fleet to compensate for polluting models. The scheme is seen as particularly advantageous for German luxury car manufactures. 

But MEPs say they have made the best of a bad situation, allowing supercredits from 2020 to 2022, but capping them at 7.5g/km over that period. "Our objective was to stand firm and not weaken our targets, in order not to hold back innovation in the car industry and EU efforts against climate change,” said Matthias Groote, MEP and Chair of the Parliament’s Environment Committee. 

This informal deal, reached first with the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU, will be presented to a meeting of EU diplomats on Friday. Reaching an end to the six month impasse will provide “much-needed regulatory certainty and ensure cars continue to reduce their CO2 emissions and improve fuel efficiency”, said Greg Archer of the environmental campaign group Transport & Environment. “Time has run out and Council must now sign this off without further amendment or delay,” he said.

Emissions toolbox

The EU’s overall target is to cut emissions of CO2 by 80 - 95 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990. But while levels of CO2 from most other sectors are falling, emissions from road transport rose by 26 per cent between 1990 and 2008. Currently, one fifth of all CO2 emissions in Europe come from motor vehicles.

Since 2006, car emissions have been limited to 160 grams per kilometre across a manufacturer’s range of vehicles. This limit was due to be cut to 130g/km from 2015 and 95g/km by 2020. This week’s watered-down deal foresees a one-year delay to the 95g target, so that 95 per cent of new car sales will have to comply with the target in 2020 and 100 per cent in 2021. "It is disgraceful that the heavy-handed lobbying of Germany has paid off in weakening the 95g target," said Archer.

Supercredits will assign a favourable weighting to cars that emit less than 50 grams per kilometre of CO2, meaning that carmakers have more flexibility in how they reach the target. The agreement reached in June set a limit for use of supercredits at 2.5 grams per year. The new deal sets a cap of 7.5 grams of CO2 for the years 2020-2022.

Good news for clean cars

The Parliament’s transport committee also voted to approve a new draft law requiring EU governments to provide specified numbers of electric vehicle recharging points by 2020. 

The minimum number of charging points varies from country-to-country, with Germany obliged to provide 86,000, Italy 72,000, and Luxembourg 1,000.

Public charging stations must be placed in urban areas and at reasonable distances along the trans-European road network, said MEPs, to better address the “range anxiety” of electric car drivers. 

Private sector players should play a leading role in developing this infrastructure, but member states should provide tax and public procurement incentives for them to do so, MEPs said.