CO₂ emissions from new cars in Europe fell by 12% in 2020, says EEA

Average carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from new cars registered in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom were 12% lower in 2020 than the previous year, according to the latest figures published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Monday 26 September.

For new vans, the level of average emissions fell by 1.9%.

According to the EEA, these decreases are mainly due to the increase in sales of electric vehicles.

Between 2019 and 2020, the share of electric vehicle registrations rose from 3.5% to 11.6% (including 6.2% for fully electric vehicles and 5.4% for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles), thereby allowing the total number of new electric cars registered in 2020 to exceed one million, according to the data.

For its part, the European Commission pointed out that this annual drop in emissions, the biggest since the EU’s CO₂ emission standards came into force in 2010, “coincides with the phase-in of stricter EU-fleet wide CO₂ emissions standards for cars as of 1 January 2020”.

While these standards are under review, the EEA data “shows that European legislation on CO₂ emissions standards continues to be an effective tool for reducing CO₂ emissions from cars and vans”, said the institution.

To access the data: https://aeur.eu/f/39w (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)