Action against car emissions across Northern Europe
Fri 08 June 2007
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New schemes have been announced in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands aimed at reducing emissions from road transport and providing more information to the public about the environmental performance of their cars.
The German environment ministry has announced plans for an updated national car labelling scheme that will provide information on CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency. Meanwhile, the Dutch Government is proposing to significantly raise registration taxes for the least fuel efficient cars and Sweden is to introduce a regionally based emissions index.
The labelling scheme may or may not come into being before a system is proposed by the European Commission. Current European law requires that car showrooms must display the amount of emissions produced per kilometre (g/km) by every new car. But the German Government feels that consumers will benefit more from being told how far their car deviates from the EU target of 130 g/km. The new label will also indicate a tax estimate for the vehicle if an emissions-weighted system of taxation were in place.
In a separate development, the Dutch government has announced its desire to raise tariffs on the most fuel-inefficient cars. Petrol cars with emission levels of above 240 g/km would pay an additional 80-90 Euros in registration taxes per gram over the 240 mark (the threshold would be 200 for diesel vehicles). It also wants to create differentiated new-car taxes according to emissions levels.
The Swedish index, developed in part by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, has collected data from every one of its 290 municipalities. This reveals that new cars sold in Sweden have an average emissions level of 189 g/km, which is 20% above the EU average, and the highest national average in the EU. The system is able to differentiate between each municipality.
According to Kjell Andersson from the Agency, the system is intended to increase public awareness, and he told ENDS that there was significant potential for improving Sweden's high emissions rating. At present, 6% of new cars sold meet the EU target of 140 g/km but, according to the index's inventors, emissions would fall by 20% if buyers consistently chose the most fuel-efficient petrol-engine cars within each class of vehicle.
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