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Carmakers will be required to reduce the carbon emissions of new cars they sell in Europe by 15% in 2025 and 37.5% in 2030. The CO2 reduction targets, based on 2021 levels, were agreed in the last round of talks between the Austrian Presidency, European Parliament and the European Commission this week after 27 hours of negotiations. T&E welcomed the deal, which will improve fuel economy for consumers, but it warned that the targets are well below what’s needed to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

More than 320,000 citizens have added their voices to the campaign to stop subsidising the use of palm-oil biodiesel in Europe’s cars and trucks. The #NotInMyTank petition calls on the European Commission to ensure the phase-out of biodiesel made from palm oil – as it is required to do under the recently revised Renewable Energy Directive.

The European Parliament, Commission and Council just agreed to cut carbon emissions from new cars and vans by 15% in 2025 and 37.5% in 2030, compared to 2021 levels. The European federation of transport NGOs, Transport & Environment (T&E), welcomes the agreement. However, T&E warns that the deal is well below what’s needed to achieve the EU’s 2030 climate targets or indeed meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which requires the last car with an engine to be sold by the early 2030s.

Late last night in the 4th negotiation round the Austrian Presidency of the EU, the Commission and EU Parliament failed to reach an agreement on CO2 targets for cars and vans up to 2030. T&E deplores the stubbornness of the Austrian government in rejecting all Parliament’s and other Member States’ compromises and urges European countries and the Commission to start negotiating seriously.

MEPs of the industry and transport committees voted this morning to reject plans to  guarantee 40% of the EU’s transport infrastructure budget (some €12 billion) be spent on more sustainable projects like smart grids and charging stations. European NGO federation, Transport & Environment (T&E) is disappointed with this vote because it locks in considerable funds into fossil fuel powered transport. Thus T&E calls on all MEPs to reject this in December’s plenary vote.

Environmental NGOs join forces and launch pan-European campaign to tell the European Commission #NotInMyTank.

Three years after the Dieselgate scandal was exposed, there are still 43 million highly polluting diesel cars on European roads. As EU industry commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska said at the first European Diesel Summit in Brussels last week, ‘the story isn’t over’. The timing couldn’t have been better to gather policy makers, cities, health experts, consumer groups and green NGOs from across Europe to discuss concrete solutions given that a special ministerial meeting has been convened by the European Commission for 27 November.

The present briefing provides an overview on the evolution of low-emissions zones for cars and vans in EU cities and analyses their effect on consumer behaviour on the basis of a representative survey commissioned by Transport & Environment. It finds that there is a steadily growing number of cities that introduce or tighten low-emission zones. There are currently more than 260 low-emission zones in 12 EU Member States, among which 250 concern passenger cars. The Dieselgate scandal has provided strong impetus to this movement amongst European cities, and there are now also several cities in Central and Eastern Europe that discuss adopting low-emission zones.

Two-thirds of Europeans support the introduction of low-emissions zones (LEZ) banning polluting cars from city centres, a survey undertaken by Ipsos for environmental group Transport & Environment shows.

New evidence shows 370,000 old and highly polluting second-hand diesels were exported to Romania in 2017. There are measures to restrict the influx, says legal analysis.