Auto-Oil II tackles sources of pollution

Date: 18/03/1999

By Simon Coss

THE European Commission's latest initiative to tackle air pollution has a somewhat misleading name.

Although it is called the 'Auto-Oil II' programme, the institution's new clean-air offensive will probably have relatively little to do with pollution from cars.

" Transport emissions, in terms of total emissions, are actually falling quite dramatically," explained an expert working on the scheme in the Commission's Directorate-General for environmental policy (DGXI).

Auto-Oil II follows up on the institution's original 'Auto-Oil' initiative, which resulted in concrete proposals for action in June 1996 and agreement on them between EU governments and the European Parliament almost exactly two years later. That first initiative set out a set of stringent new fuel standards and engine specifications to be met by the Union's carmakers and oil companies.

Auto Oil II aims to bring in new rules to cover all of the various 'sources' of airborne pollution not covered by the first deal, including motorcycles, petrol-driven lawn mowers, outboard motors on boats and machinery used in the building sector, such as air compressors and other petrol-driven tools. "If these sources are not controlled then, taken together, they are fairly massive producers of pollution," said one DGXI official.

This new approach means that the Union's oil producers are likely to be hit harder by any directives resulting from the new initiative than its car-makers. The question of 'burden-sharing' between the two industrial sectors was a major bone of contention during the original Auto-Oil talks. Both sides complained they were being asked to make more changes to their production methods than the other and by the end of the talks relations between the two industries were, to put it mildly, strained.

The Commission has already said that it hopes to bring in new tougher fuel-quality standards for both diesel and petrol within the EU. It argues that while the specifications agreed under Auto-Oil - including plans

to phase out leaded petrol by 2000 - were a step in the right direction, further improvements are still required.

Work on Auto-Oil II is already underway, with the Commission currently coordinating a series of air quality studies in ten cities across the Union. The results of this research will form the basis of future proposals.