EU moves to base public procurement decisions on environment criteria
Fri 24 October 2008
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EU ministers have proposed the introduction of non-binding targets to base the procurement of public sector fleet vehicles on environmental criteria by 2010. The Commission is expected to propose mandatory green criteria for public buyers in an upcoming proposal to revise the EU energy labelling directive.
Under the proposal, member states will remain free to set their own sectoral targets and to adopt more ambitious environmental criteria if desired to achieve the overall target on green public procurement.
The proposal means that public authorities and providers of public road transport will increasingly have to take into account the energy consumption, CO2 emissions and other pollutants of vehicles before they agree to buy them. With the introduction of proposed new procurement standards there could be a ban on authorities buying products below a certain energy class.
According to ENDS, nearly 275,000 vehicles are bought by public authorities in Europe every year.
In related news, the UK's Government Car Despatch Agency (GCDA) has been named 2008's 'Public Sector Fleet of the Year' in the annual GreenFleet environmental awards. In just over three years the GCDA has doubled the number of low-emission diesel cars it runs and 60 percent of its cars are now hybrid models.
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