Dirty diesels heading East: Romanian edition

Despite the Dieselgate scandal, the number of dirty diesel cars and vans on Europe’s roads is growing and is now an estimated to be 43 million. The high air pollution caused by carmakers’ manipulation of emission rules is resulting in increasing numbers of cities choosing to ban diesel cars.

These impending bans are pushing drivers to abandon their diesel cars, and selling them on. Most of these dirty diesels will end up in Central & Eastern European countries, exporting pollution from the West to the East.

In an attempt to analyse the magnitude of the problem and following T&E’s analysis of second-hand diesel flows to Bulgaria and Poland, this briefing analyses second hand car flows in Romania and models how the average NOx emissions would evolve until 2040. It also highlights near-term options available to Member States to restrict the influx of highly polluting second-hand diesel vehicles, based on a recently commissioned legal analysis.