Dimas and Verheugen vie for lead on car emissions strategy

The European Commission’s environment and industry departments are divided over who should take lead responsibility for a proposal to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars.

A communication setting out plans to replace a voluntary CO2 reduction deal with binding targets was presented last month by Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas and his enterprise counterpart Günter Verheugen.

Each is now hoping to be in charge when legislation is proposed next year.

"According to the Commission work programme, this is clearly Dimas’s file," said a spokeswoman for the environment commissioner. The February commitment to legislation was widely seen as a victory for Dimas, who had pushed for binding targets instead of a new voluntary scheme preferred by Verheugen.

A spokesman for Verheugen said it was too early to decide who would have lead responsibility. He added that sharing responsibility between the two departments was also an option, as had been the case with REACH, the controversial chemicals regulation - another dossier plagued by disagreements between industry and environmentalists.

"We will soon be starting an impact assessment to accompany the legislation," explained the spokesman. "We will just have to see how that goes."

The assessment will look at the effect of setting the CO2 reduction target at levels suggested by the communication. This would mean a 130 grams per kilometre (g/km) target for carmakers and 10g/km for other measures, including changes to fuel tyre and tyre design.

A first impact assessment from Commission departments accompanying the communication highlighted differences of opinion so sharp it was not published.

The assessment makes several economic predictions that have upset environmentalists.

In particular, it warns that the cost of imposing a 120g/km target could run up to €60 billion. Measures to reduce car CO2 emissions meanwhile could bring down "transport demand, GDP [gross domestic product] and real consumption", it says.

In addition, Russia could become "an interesting new product location" for EU manufacturers and "at the supplier industry, additional job cuts have to be expected".

"There was disagreement over how to interpret the figure given in the assessment," according to one Commission official. "We decided not to publish it, so officially it does not exist."

Jos Dings of Transport & Environment (T&E), the conservation group, said that the assessment was "fundamentally flawed and based on very rough economic models". Dings questioned the assumption that the weight of the average car will continue to increase by 1.5% a year. "This does not consider the possibility that following regulation the trend will stop, or reverse," he said.

At the same time, industry says the unpublished assessment played down the impact that binding CO2 targets would have on EU jobs and finances.

European car manufacturers group ACEA said the assessment ignored the findings of a 2006 report, completed for the Commission by independent consultants. This report said that using technology changes to cut CO2 emissions could add €2,450 to the price of a vehicle. The Commission’s unpublished assessment gives no per vehicle cost estimate.

"The Commission cannot just deny the results because it does not like them," said ACEA’s Sigrid de Vries. She added that the "independent" figures showed "that a combination of measures, including vehicle technology, biofuels, infrastructure adjustments and consumer behaviour, can deliver the targeted CO2 reductions while safeguarding Europe’s economic strength".

The European Commission’s environment and industry departments are divided over who should take lead responsibility for a proposal to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars.

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