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The 2017 target was agreed in 2010 and confirmed by MEPs a year ago. It was criticised by T&E at the time as business as usual. A year ago T&E warned that vans had almost reached the 2017 limit, and the latest figures show they already have, four years in advance of the legal mandate. The 2020 target of 147g requires an improvement of 15%, significantly less than the 25% improvement the EU requires for its passenger cars. Last year, T&E’s
car CO2 report showed that some companies like Iveco, would only have to reduce their CO
2 emissions by 9% by 2020.
T&E senior policy officer, William Todts, said: ‘The new EEA figures confirm what we’ve said since 2010: the vans target is a joke. This regulation is not delivering lower fuel costs for businesses, it’s not driving the supply of ultraclean urban delivery vehicles and does little or nothing to offset emissions from increasing traffic.’
Vans are one of the fastest growing sources of CO
2 emitted from transport in Europe – they increased by 26% between 1995 and 2010 and now account for 8% of the EU’s road transport emissions. A
2012 study by TNO, an environmental consultancy, showed a 2020 target for vans, equivalent to the cars 95g target, would have to be 118g/km. As part of last year’s deal between Parliament and Council, the Commission promised it would be looking at a 2025 target in the range of 105-120g/km.
Todts added: ‘The Commission promised it would correct the vans target in 2025 and if they’re serious about reducing fuel costs for small businesses, that’s exactly what they should do.’
The EEA’s figures provide some useful additional information. Slovakia had the highest emissions at 196g, followed by Germany and the Czech Republic, while Malta, Portugal and France had the lowest emissions at around 150g. The EEA figures are preliminary and the finalised data will be published in autumn.
