The USA will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer of oil well before 2020. That is one of the headline findings of the International Energy Agency’s latest report on energy trends, World Energy Outlook.
MEP Fiona Hall hosted a breakfast debate on the 2020 Cars and CO2 proposal. A series of presentations were made, followed by a discussion on the impact of fuel-efficient cars on employment, innovation and industrial competitiveness.
Fuel is an important and rising business cost. At the same time vans are one of the fastest growing sources of transport CO2 emissions, increasing by 26% between 1995 and 2010 and now accounting for 8% of EU’s total road transport emissions. To reduce van fuel consumption and counter rising emissions, binding CO2 standards were introduced in 2011, setting a 2017 fleetwide target of 175 CO2 g/km. For 2020 a target of 147 g/km was agreed. In its review proposal, which is currently under discussion in the European Parliament, the Commission confirmed the 147 g/km target.
The European Commission has announced today a deferral by one year, from 2012 to 2013, for flights from and to the EU to be included into the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) (1).
In 2009, the EU set legally-binding targets for new cars to emit 130 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer (g/km) by 2015 and 95g/km in 2020.1 The Commission recently proposed a review of the way the 2020 target should be met.2 This confirmed the 95g/km value but reintroduced supercredits (additional rewards for sales of ultralow carbon vehicles) that weaken the target. This paper outlines why and how the market for ultralow carbon cars should be supported without reducing the wider benefits of improving the efficiency of conventional cars.
In today's blog, T&E programme manager on aviation Bill Hemmings urges ICAO, at the eve of its governing Council meeting, to finally make significant progress towards a global market-based measure to cut airlines' emissions.
With this new blog post, T&E programme manager for clean fuels Nusa Urbancic unveils the process which has led to the weakening of a draft proposal that deals with biofuels sustainability, turning it into a missed opportunity. Urbancic also hints at the way in which the Parliament and Council can improve the proposal in the months to come.
The idea that making cars cleaner would be bad for jobs and competitiveness is a myth. That is the conclusion from a report launched by T&E that looks into the economic consequences for carmakers to meet strict carbon dioxide emissions limits from 2020 and beyond. T&E says it strengthens the argument for an 80g/km target for 2020 and a 60g target for 2025.