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Manipulation of Fuel Economy Test Results by Carmakers: New Evidence and Solutions

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A growing body of evidence shows the current test used to measure car fuel efficiency is outdated, unrepresentative of real-world driving and lax enough to allow carmakers to systematically manipulate official test results at the expense of consumers’ trust. European institutions are presently finalising a regulation to lower CO2 emissions from cars and vans in 2020. This has stimulated intense debate when and how a new official test should be introduced. This briefing informs this debate in the light of new evidence from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) that for the first time compares progress in official and real-world vehicle fuel efficiency on a brand-by-brand basis.

Who’s taking the lead on lead times?

‘Lead time’ is an expression most people do not often hear, but you hear it all the time when you work on European green laws. Lead time is the idea that, when you set a new environmental standard for an industry, that industry needs to be given time to adapt. This all sounds fair and good, but in reality claiming that lead times are too short, or even too long, is a very popular tool for industry lobbyists to get rid of or delay laws, and that in turn makes lead time a controversial issue.

Environmental and economic impacts of FQD implementation

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A new study by Carbon Matters and CE Delft shows that proper implementation of the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) with different values assigned to different types of unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands and oil shale, can shift investments away from these ultra-high carbon energy sources towards lower carbon ones, leading to global greenhouse gas savings. As such, the study underpins the need for keeping such differentiated values in the legislative proposal by the European Commission, which is currently subject to an impact assessment.

MEPs vote to limit the speed of vans, saving fuel and emissions on the run

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament today voted to limit the speed of vans to 120kph. MEPs also voted to introduce stricter new targets for van fuel economy and CO2 emissions in 2025 but rejected tightening a weak 2020 target.Capping van speed will encourage supply of smaller engines, reducing average van fuel consumption and emissions by at least 6%.

Les véhicules à faibles émissions de carbone : bons pour l'emploi en Europe

Le présent document et l’étude sur laquelle il se fonde apportent des éléments clés quant à l’impact sur l'emploi des véhicules à faibles émissions de carbone. Ils sont l'aboutissement d'une vaste revue de la littérature consacrée à la question réalisée par CE Delft.

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World still not taking climate change seriously, say three reports

Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are hitting new highs, and global action to tackle such concentrations is falling well short of what is needed to prevent dangerous climate change, according to two new reports. A third report says tackling climate change is a key to ending poverty. T&E says the findings should strengthen the Commission and MEPs when they face pressure to weaken EU legislation such as the fuel quality directive and emissions trading for aviation.

Low Carbon Vehicles: Good for EU Employment

This briefing paper, and the supporting report upon which it is based, fill the evidence gap about the employment effects of lower carbon vehicles. They summarise a review of published literature undertaken by CE Delft.

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CE Delft literature review on employment impacts of GHG reduction policies for transport

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Recently a large number of studies have been published that claim that accelerated uptake of electrical vehicles (EVs) and fuel efficient cars in the market for automotive transport may have positive employment benefits.

Opposition that risks having no clean future for liquid transport fuels

Jos Dings, Director T&E

Opinion by Jos Dings - T&E director
People who follow our work – and Europe’s environmental policy – a little bit will have noticed that two fuels-related draft laws keep dragging on without any apparent progress. The first one is what to do about indirect land use change effects of biofuels (key words: Iluc, biodiesel). The second is whether or not to give petrol and diesel from unconventional fossil sources a higher lifecycle greenhouse gas default value (key words: fuel quality directive, tar sands).