by Colman
Thu Sep 13th, 2007 at 07:24:21 AM EST
The poor EU car industry are terribly upset by proposals to force them to reduce emissions of new cars, according to EurActive.com.
With automobile manufacturers expected to miss their 2008 voluntary commitment to reduce CO2 emissions, the Commission has proposed introducing new binding legislation. The car industry has firmly rejected the plans, arguing that they have already achieved strong cuts through technological improvements and laying the blame for slow progress on other factors. But green NGOs say that the proposals do not go far enough.
The Commission want to set a target that would be met in part by use of things like biofuels(!) and changes in driver behaviour.
So far, just four European manufacturers (Fiat, Citroen, Renault and Peugeot) are currently on track to meet the 2008 target of 140 g/km, whereas carbon emissions of newly registered cars in Germany still averaged at 172.5 g/km in 2006 – just 0.5% lower than the previous year.
The discussion has thus split the car industry in two, pitting French and Italian manufacturers, which typically produce smaller, more fuel-efficient models, against manufacturers of large, high-performance vehicles such as Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover.
The latter – mainly German and UK-based companies – claim that the new legislation will penalise them unfairly as they are simply responding to consumer demand for bigger, safer and more powerful cars. They say that the chances of them meeting the target within the next five years are virtually non-existent with present technologies.
Yes, that's the point: that consumer demand flies in the face of the common good and should not be encouraged or fulfilled.
The Parlimentary Environmental committee disagrees with the Commission and the manufacturers:
In a parallel development, the environment committee adopted an own-initiative report by Liberal MEP Chris Davies (EurActiv 26/06/07) calling for CO2 emissions from cars to be cut to 120 g/km by 2012 "through engine technology alone" – thereby rejecting the 'integrated approach' supported by the Commission and automobile manufacturers.
The report also expresses a need for long-term targets as low as "70g CO2/km or less by 2025", although it adds that some specialist manufacturers will be unable to achieve the 120gramme target by 2012 and should have the right "to exclude 500 identified vehicles annually".
