A study ordered by the Commission has recommended the EU’s approach to regulating car and van emissions should be changed, as it is not helping to keep the environmental impact of road vehicles to a minimum.
Nine in ten Italians are in favour of vans being fitted with compulsory speed limiters according to a survey by Doxa, an Italian market research company, on behalf of three environmental organisations (1). The groups, along with European sustainable transport campaigners Transport & Environment, are calling on the EU to make speed limiters for vans mandatory as soon as possible.
The European Parliament has approved weakened CO2 / fuel efficiency standards for vans (light commercial vehicles). The final law says the average new van sold in the EU should emit no more than 175g CO2/km in 2017 and 147g CO2/km in 2020. The original European Commission proposal of 135g CO2/km in 2020 was weakened under enormous pressure from vehicle manufacturers.
Efforts to reduce emissions from vans look set to be severely watered down, as the EU’s first law on limiting carbon dioxide from light commercial vehicles nears completion.
Opinion by Jos Dings - T&E Director
Did we miss something? Last year, the European Commission didn’t propose a single new legislative measure to clean up transport. To be fair, it has been spending most of its time worrying about the future of the Eurozone. As a result, for T&E this was the sort of year where seeds for smarter transport policy were sown. We’re optimistic that next year could bring a decent crop of positive changes.
A German scientist has described measures to encourage smaller, more fuel-efficient engines and lighter vehicles as ‘the greatest wave of innovation since the second world war’.
The automotive industry, backed by the governments of Germany, Italy and France has succeeded in severely weakening an EU law setting CO2 standards for new vans.
European carmakers are set to achieve mandatory EU targets for new car CO2 emissions years ahead of time according to a new report published today. One carmaker, Toyota, has almost met its target for the year 2015, six years in advance. The study's findings suggest that carmakers previously exaggerated the time needed to comply with car CO2 limits. Therefore targets now being discussed for vans should be tightened according to Transport & Environment.
A leading bank says it expects the market for electric vehicles to be bigger than the market for renewable energy over the next 10 years.
