Work on November’s proposal for a European regulation seeking to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and light utility vehicles in the EU by 30% by 2030, with an intermediate target of a 15% reduction by 2025 is being stepped up ahead of the first political debate by environment ministers in Luxembourg on 25 June.
Within the Council working group, which conducted a fresh analysis of the text on 5 June, about ten delegations have yet to decide their positions. France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which support more ambitious targets, organised a debate with all stakeholders at the Dutch Representation to the EU in Brussels on 6 June to identify possible scope for improvement bearing in mind the Paris Agreement targets, assurances to consumers to rebuild their trust and incentives required to speed up transition to low-carbon mobility.
France is prepared to go as far as a 40% reduction by 2030. The Netherlands and Luxembourg would like to see a reduction target of more than 40%, a position shared by European Parliament rapporteur Miriam Dalli (S&D, Malta) who is calling for a 50% reduction. Her report will be put to the vote on 10 September.
The discussions highlighted a double challenge: one for climate and the other for competitiveness, as had already become apparent from the opening round table discussion at the Environment Council in March (see EUROPE 11974).
“On the climate and improving air quality fronts, if we want to adhere to the goals of the regulation on effort-sharing in non-ETS sectors which covers transport in particular, ambitious targets are needed for the automobile sector”, a diplomatic source told EUROPE.
The challenge for competitiveness comes from the fact that the text includes provisions to encourage “electromobility” through commercialisation of low- or zero-emission vehicles.
On Tuesday 5 June, the ACEA repeated its concerns on managing the transition, given that future reductions in CO2 emissions depend on sales of electric vehicles which will have to be priced at levels that are “affordable for consumers” and on having the infrastructure in place that makes it easy to re-charge these vehicles. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)