EU backs tighter carbon caps for cars

Bloomberg

European Union negotiators reached agreement on tighter caps on carbon dioxide from cars in a bid to spur the development of clean vehicles.
Representatives of EU governments and the European Parliament fixed a 37.5 percent CO2-reduction target for 2030 compared with the 2021 limit.
The deal in Brussels marks a compromise after the 28-nation Parliament in early October demanded an average 40 percent CO2 cut by autos in 2030 compared with 2021 and EU governments called later the same month for a 35 percent reduction over the period. The accord also includes an interim CO2-cut target for 2025.
“This is an important signal in our fight against climate change,” Environment Minister Elisabeth Koestinger of Austria, current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, said in a statement after a nine-and-a-half-hour meeting that marked the third attempt in as many weeks to achieve a breakthrough. “We had tough and intense negotiations.”
Europe is showing greater resolve to clean up road transport amid heightened warnings about the catastrophic environmental impact of climate change and about the economic risks of losing out to the likes of China in the technological transition to low-emission vehicles.
About 15 million autos are sold each year in the EU, with cars accounting for more than a tenth of the bloc’s releases of CO2, the main greenhouse gas blamed for rising global temperatures. Electric vehicles in Europe have a market share of around 1.5 percent.
Like the targets for 2030 sought initially by the EU Parliament and national governments, the goal settled on during the deliberations is more ambitious than a 30 percent reduction proposed over the period by the European Commission, the bloc’s regulatory arm, in draft legislation last year.
Car-industry groups have warned that tightening the commission proposal would threaten automotive jobs and consumer choice in Europe. The EU’s current average caps on CO2 from cars are 130 grams a kilometer set for 2015 and 95 grams fixed for 2021.
The negotiated deal “demands too much,” Bernhard Mattes, head of German auto-industry group VDA, said in an emailed statement. “Nobody knows today how the agreed limits can be achieved in the given time.”