Brussels, 07/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament environment committee defined, on Tuesday 7 May, its position for making vans cleaner. MEPs confirm the ceiling of 147 g/km by 2020 but fix a new longer term objective of 105-120 g/km from 2025 on. Furthermore, they advocate limiting van speed to 120 km/h throughout Europe. MEPs massively supported the report. There were mixed reactions from NGOs and from industry.
With 53 votes in favour, 4 against and one abstention, the environment committee's vote gave very strong support to the rapporteur, Holger Krahmer (ALDE, Germany). Vans should abide by the maximum 147 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometre by 2020 (for manufacturers of over 1,000 vehicles annually). Fines could be imposed on van makers if overall emissions from older and new models of vans exceed this ceiling. MEPs have provided for a “super credit” weighting system to reward clean innovations: vans emitting under 50g/km will count for 3.5 vehicles in 2014 and 1.3 after 2018 (up to 1% of the clean vehicles).
Rapporteur Krahmer said after the vote that he welcomed the fact that members of the committee had “confirmed the target of 147 grams of CO2/km for 2020 which was agreed three years ago”. He said that requests for more ambitious targets were rejected. He justified this by explaining that, if targets are changed too often, makers will not have any planning security.
The NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) bemoans the fact that the environment committee has lost an opportunity to strengthen the targets for reducing CDO2 emissions. William Todds, of T&E, nonetheless welcomes the fact that MEPS have adopted a longer-term vision, fixing indicative objectives for after 2020 (195-120 g). “Long-term targets for 2025 are crucial to stimulate innovation that leads to more efficient vehicles and drives advanced clean technologies like electric vehicles into the market. The proposed 2025 target range is a step forward but needs to be more ambitious”, Todds said.
European car makers are not happy. Ivan Hodac, the secretary general of the association that represents makers, ACEA, criticises these new ceilings, particularly as there is no environmental impact assessment done beforehand. “We cannot afford to play political games with this industry, especially in these economic times. Targets for both vans and cars need to be fact-based. At this stage, even the European Commission does not have an analysis of what the post-2020 targets for vans should be. The only basis for the figures that ENVI came up with today is political horse trading”.
Furthermore, MEPs consider, against the rapporteur's opinion, that makers should limit the speed of their van models from next January on to a maximum of 120 km/h. The report on vans will be put to the vote of Parliament during the plenary session in July. (MD/transl.jl)