Carbon – are carmakers in reverse gear?

Two MEPS discuss car industry carbon emmissions

Malcolm Harbour

The car industry has, since its beginnings, been under the eye of the regulator. Regulations have shaped many elements of the car, presented major technical challenges, and forced the concentration of the global industry. So the current debate on the EU legal framework, to encourage lower carbon dioxide- (CO2) emitting cars, has a familiar ring to it. The industry thinks that the targets are unrealistic, the legislators defend their opening position, and the non-governmental organisations think that they are far too soft. Normally, a compromise is reached and the car industry moves on to face the next legislative challenge.

But this time, things are different. There is far more at stake - the whole shape of the European car industry, its ability to compete globally and its capability to make low-carbon vehicles that are attractive, affordable and profitable. I have no doubts that the car industry is committed to a low-carbon future. After all, it adopted a voluntary CO2 reduction target in 1995, way ahead of many other sectors.

There are many new technologies - some evolutionary, many revolutionary, under development. The problem is not how to make the changes, but how to make them quickly and with sustainable investment. A new car programme, employing the latest digital technology, will take three years from design approval to showroom launch. The designs for models to be launched in 2012, which will be part of the European Commission’s proposed CO2 targets, will be frozen shortly.

As well as new car designs, there are many other ways that policymakers can encourage low-carbon motoring. There are a raft of taxes on car purchase and use - annual usage taxes, fuel duties, and special sales taxes.

Linking car taxes to CO2 emissions can have a big impact on car-buyers. Other initiatives would help - allowing only low CO2 vehicles access to inner cities, or bus lanes on commuter routes, for example. Public sector purchasers and private companies running fleets could set demanding CO2 targets for the vehicles they buy. Companies might be offered a beneficial capital write-down allowance linked to low-CO2 purchases.

But to tackle global warming we cannot wait 20 or more years to replace all existing cars with more fuel-efficient models. The way we use and drive cars will make CO2 reductions happen much more quickly, and technology can help us. There are already proposals for gear-change indicators and tyre pressure monitors, for example. But our cars could show us how much CO2 we have produced over a set period (yes, the technology is available at a relatively low price). More use of global positioning system equipment and real-time warnings of traffic congestion can reduce journey times and wasted mileage.

A transformation in our car purchase and use requires a change in attitudes and better information. The car industry already offers a remarkable example - the European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) star rating for crash test performance. By providing consumers with an authoritative benchmark, this has made car safety features a purchase priority. Why not have a star rating for environmental performance, bringing in the factors of weight, aerodynamics, space efficiency and environmental driving aids? Car buyers looking for cars in different sizes or performance classes would have some real benchmarks to look at, not just the over-simplistic CO2 grams per mile as a single indicator. The European Commission supports EuroNCAP, so why not a green star programme?

Making, buying and using cars in the low carbon economy will present huge challenges for everyone involved. Europe needs an imaginative, integrated policy framework, sharing responsibility between the EU institutions and member states. All involved have a big responsibility over the next few months.

• UK Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour is co-ordinator of the centre-right EPP-ED group on the Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee and spent 32 years in the motor industry as an engineer, executive, consultant and researcher.

Michael Cramer

Passenger cars account for 15% of all EU emissions, with the automobile sector being one of the few in which emissions keep rising. But instead of developing more sustainable cars with significantly lower emissions to tackle this phenomenon, Europe’s carmakers seem intent on directing their attention towards preventing what is badly needed regulation.

One might imagine that the auspiciously named ‘Cars 21’, the advisory group made up of representatives of the automobile industry, would be working to find answers to the transport challenges of the 21st century by focusing on sustainable individual mobility. But in reality it functions as little more than a lobby group, which uses its privileged access to the European Commission, through Enterprise and Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen, to try to evade legislation.

Over the past year, this lobby has been successful in its attempts to water down EU rules on air quality and on passenger car pollution, despite the serious damage to public health in Europe from air pollution. It even had the gall to push for an exemption for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) from the revised car pollution standards.

Maximising the bottom-line at the expense of the environment seems unashamedly to be the name of the game, as the recent debate over proposed EU limits for car CO2 emissions once again highlighted. There is now a general consensus that the world is facing a climate crisis and that we need belatedly to bring our greenhouse gas emissions in check. Yet, at the same time, the car industry, particularly in Germany, seems intent on producing and marketing bigger and heavier cars with higher emissions. The SUV phenomenon is one of the reasons why the CO2 emissions from road transport have increased by 26% over the 1990-2004 period (while the EU as a whole has reduced its emissions of greenhouse gases by just under 5% over the 1990-2004 period).

Fleet-average CO2 emissions of cars sold in 2005 stood at 162 grams per kilometre - far from the voluntary commitment made by manufacturers almost ten years ago to reduce emissions to 140 g/km by 2008. Against this background, binding emissions targets, which the Commission proposed in February to howls of pain from car manufacturers, were clearly necessary. Unfortunately, the car industry, through its proxy commissioners, succeeded in weakening the general target from the originally proposed 120 g/km to 130 g/km by 2012.

The technology to deliver these necessary reductions is already there, as Asian manufacturers who are rolling out hybrid cars have demonstrated. Ironically, the hybrid model, combining conventional and electric power, was invented in Europe but then not pursued. Only by doing so, will they guarantee the future success of the industry in Europe and preserve the jobs it generates.

Having a strict binding target for automobile CO2 emissions would undoubtedly be a good thing. After entry into force, the 130 g/km ceiling should be further lowered by at least 10g per km every two years until a ceiling of 80g/km for all road vehicles is reached in 2020.

But just as importantly, we need to promote sustainable alternatives to automobile mobility, especially for urban transport. Half of all car journeys in EU cities are shorter than five kilometres, while 10% are even less than one kilometre. Many of these journeys could be made by bike or even on foot. If only 30% of car journeys of less than five kilometres were made by bicycle instead, the volume of CO2 emissions generated by road traffic would be cut by 4% in Germany; that is the remaining reduction required for Germany to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

• German Green MEP Michael Cramer is co-ordinator of the Greens/EFA group on the Parliament’s transport and tourism committee.