EU parliament signals tough line on car CO2

Parliament’s industry committee has endorsed proposals to sharply cut CO2 emissions from cars.

However, the committee did not support moves to give industry longer – until 2015 – to reach the target.

The committee is the first of several that will be commenting on a European commission plan for a 20 per cent cut in average car emissions by 2012.

Members meeting on Tuesday before the summer recess called for a bigger cut, of 25 per cent.

German Green MEP Rebecca Harms, the author of the committee opinion, said she was pleased its members “supported plans to introduce binding limits for passenger car CO2 emissions and rejected proposals to postpone their introduction to 2015”.

But the committee did not name 2012 or any other year as a deadline for the 120g limit to come into force.

“In the vote, the committee called for future legislation to effectively reward best performance in vehicle efficiency and to ensure incentives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the vehicle fleet,” Harms added.

The committee confirmed parliament’s earlier position of limits in the order of 80-100gr CO2/km in the medium term.

When parliament resumes, the environment committee will consider a report by UK Liberal deputy Chris Davies, who has suggested a tougher limit of 120g per kilometre, but by 2015 instead of 2012.

Other committees, including transport and the internal market, will  also table opinions.

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