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Tighter Cap on Automobile CO2 Pollution Mulled by EU for 2025
2010-11-10 11:20:46.214 GMT
By Jonathan Stearns
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- European Union regulators floated
the idea of tightening a cap on carbon dioxide from cars by
almost 50 percent over a decade in a bid to step up the battle
against climate change.
The European Commission raised the possibility of limiting
CO2 discharges from autos sold in the EU to 70 grams a kilometer
on average in 2025 compared with a 130-gram limit already fixed
for 2015. The commission wants to reverse a 26 percent increase
since 1990 in road emissions of greenhouse gases including CO2.
"It is important to assess the feasibility of a target of
70 gCO2/km for passenger cars by 2025," the commission, the 27-
nation EU's regulatory arm, said in a policy paper today in
Brussels. Any new binding target requires a commission
legislative proposal that would need the approval of EU
governments and the European Parliament in a process that can
take several years.
The commission's reference to a possible 2025 cap comes a
week after an environmental transport group said auto
manufacturers are ahead of schedule in complying with the EU's
2015 emission curbs. The 130-gram average target is based on
varying limits for individual carmakers ranging from Volkswagen
AG and Fiat SpA to General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.,
with the heaviest vehicles having to make the biggest
reductions.
The 2015 limits will be phased in between 2012 and 2015
under a law approved in 2008. That legislation foresees a
stricter average cap in 2020 of 95 grams of CO2 a kilometer -- a
target that depends on an impact assessment and another draft
law from the commission to become binding.
The EU also plans to curb CO2 from vans. Draft legislation
from October 2009 would reduce average CO2 emissions from new
"light commercial vehicles" sold in the EU by 14 percent to
175 grams a kilometer as of 2016 after a phase-in that begins
two years earlier.
For Related News and Information:
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Bloomberg European Autos Index BEAUTOS INDEX DES <GO>
--Editors: Jones Hayden, Andrew Clapham
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at +32-2-285-4300 or
jstearns2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at +33-1-5365-5075 or jhertling@bloomberg.net
