Carmakers failing to achieve CO2 cuts

· Activists say some MEPs influenced by industry · Targets 'like banning non-smokers from smoking'
David Gow in Brussels
The Guardian,
Tuesday August 26 2008

Europe's motor industry is still a long way from meeting EU targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and governments must increase pressure on carmakers to comply, green transport campaigners warned yesterday.
Transport & Environment (T&E), a pan-European lobby group, accused the industry of fighting tooth and nail - with government support - to water down the proposed EU emission limits.
T&E said the 14 top carmakers in the European market still had to cut engine emissions by 17% to reach the EU's 2012 target of 130 grams a kilometre.
Its new study, which is based on official data supplied to the European commission, provides scant evidence that European consumers are switching en masse to low-emission, more fuel-efficient cars.
However, Jos Dings, T&E director, said that some manufacturers were showing signs of responding to the threat of increased regulation, with German carmaker BMW cutting emissions from its fleet by an average 7.3% in 2007 through its "efficient dynamics" programme.
"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," Dings said. T&E wants an emissions target of 80g/km for all new cars by 2020 against the 158g achieved last year. In its drive to make the EU the world's first low-carbon economy, the commission has proposed that CO2 emissions from new cars be cut to 130g/km by 2012, with a further 10g reduction to come from alternative fuels. Targets for carmakers vary according to the weight of the average vehicle produced.
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 half of these.
But after ferocious lobbying from the German car industry, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, struck a deal this summer with French president Nicolas Sarkozy for the target reductions in car emissions to be phased in until 2015. They also agreed to water down the penalties for breaching the emissions limit.
Urging EU governments to retain the targets and penalties, Dings said: "German carmakers want CO2 targets to apply only to the cleanest cars in the early years. It's like demanding that smoking ban should apply initially only to non-smokers."
The T&E figures, which are the most up-to-date, show French groups Peugeot-Citroën and Renault closest to reaching the proposed limits but still falling 10% and 14% short respectively, with Italy's Fiat close behind. Three Japanese firms - Nissan, Mazda and Suzuki - are among the four with the biggest gap to make up.
The T&E findings are published before debates on the legislation in European parliament's industry and environment committees next month. The auto industry lobby had drafted the amendments tabled by sympathetic MEPs, Dings said.
Caroline Lucas, Green MEP and environment committee member, said the T&E figures were "disastrous" and accused other MEPs and governments of blocking at every turn efforts to impose more ambitious targets.