Car industry progress on CO2 'still too slow' - T&E survey
Tue 26 August 2008
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The average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in Europe fell by 1.7% in 2007 - an improvement on 2006 but still too slow to reach the EU's proposed emissions targets, according to the report's publishers T&E. The environmental group says that the 14 top car makers in Europe must still cut tailpipe CO2 emissions by 17% to reach the EU's 2012 target of 130 grams a kilometre.
The T&E report - prepared for the Brussels-based NGO by the Institute for Environmental Policy (IEEP) based on data supplied by the European Commission - singled out BMW for particular praise. The German car maker reduced emissions from the average vehicle it sells by 7.3% in 2007, to 170g/km (from 184 g/km in 2006).
T&E says, however, that overall pressure for cutting carbon dioxide emissions from new cars is insufficient for reaching the targets, which are a key part of Europe's measures to mitigate climate change. The group accused the industry of fighting tooth and nail - with government support - to water down the proposed EU emission limits.
The report highlights that some manufacturers - including Nissan, Mazda, Daimler and Suzuki - must reduce the CO2 emissions of their average car sold by over 20% before 2012 to meet the target.
Jos Dings, the T&E director, said: "With the threat of legislation looming, BMW has shown that even premium carmakers can seriously reduce CO2. But the slow response of most carmakers shows that the EU needs to keep up the pressure with challenging long-term CO2 targets."
Average emissions of cars sold in the UK improved by 1.8% in 2007 compared with 2006 according to the report - a little above the European average. However, the emissions of cars sold in the UK are still above the European average (164g/km compared with 158g/km). The UK lies 11th of 18 countries included in the T&E publication.
Carbon emissions from transport in the EU increased by 35% between 1990 and 2006 and account for 28% of all emissions with cars responsible for about half of these.
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