Motoring and ecology

The European Motor Show in Brussels focuses on green issues, writes Jennifer Rankin.

When the first Brussels motor show opened in 1902, speed and novelty were all that really mattered. Nobody worried about pollution and EU directives were still decades away. Over the course of a hundred years the ubiquity of cars has corroded much of the glamour and put green issues at centre stage. So it is hardly surprising that ecology has been designated the theme of this year’s motor show, retitled as the European Motor Show, which opens today (17 January).

While most people can agree on the importance of going green, implementing policy is more problematic. Last December, at the start of the UN conference on climate change at Bali, the chief executives of 13 car companies wrote a letter to the world’s media affirming their green credentials. "Governments must embrace sound measures to follow Kyoto," they wrote. But ten days later the industry was having a major row with the European Commission over plans to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from vehicles. There remains a big divergence between industry and the Commission on what exactly constitute "sound measures".

The Commission wants to see binding standards on the car industry to reduce CO2 emissions to an industry average of 130 grams per kilometre, for new vehicles sold, through technical improvements to vehicles. An additional reduction of 10g CO2/km will come through additional measures such as fuel efficiency, better tyres and encouraging motorists to drive in a more environmentally conscious way. The industry is currently falling a long way short of these targets, with the average for emissions at 160g CO2/km. A voluntary proposal for a reduction of 140g CO2/km by 2008 has been missed. But proposals from the Commission will not allow for excuses as carmakers will be expected to meet these targets by 2012 and face fines if they fail to do so. Carmakers specialising in off-road, high-performance or luxury vehicles, such as Germany’s Porsche, are not expected to meet the industry average. Instead they face specific targets aimed at ensuring the car industry as a whole achieves the 130g CO2/km goal. It is proposed that the fines will be levied per vehicle sold, starting at €20 for each extra gram of CO2 over the target and rising to €95 by 2015.

Transport and the Environment, a campaign group, says that manufacturers could have reduced their emissions by 20-25% by now (to meet the 2008 target), a claim that is disputed by industry voices. "It is very easy to say that if you don’t produce cars yourself," responds Sigrid de Vries, a spokeswoman for the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), arguing that regulatory developments on health and safety and fuel efficiency standards have made progress harder.

Later this month the Commission will publish criteria for assessing sustainability of biofuels, to help the EU on its way to a controversial target to provide 10% of all transport fuels from biofuels by 2020. Later this year ministers are expected to agree the fuel quality directive, which aims to tighten petrol and diesel standards.

For the car industry, the legislative battle over CO2 emissions has dampened hopes of lighter touch regulation that were awakened in particular by CARS 21 (the Competitive Automotive Regulatory Framework for the 21st century), a group of industry and policy grandees who issued a report on how to strike a balance between regulation and competitiveness. The group argued that much red tape could be trimmed by dropping dozens of items of EU legislations in favour of already-existing regulations from the UN Economic Commission for Europe.

De Vries says that the proposed legislation on CO2 emissions is "not very promising", but she thinks it is too soon to write off CARS 21. "Failure is too strong a word. We care a lot about CARS 21 and we still feel it should work and become more tangible than it is now," she says.

CARS 21 did have at least one mitigating effect on the Commission’s proposals to limit car emissions. It was the CARS 21 high-level group that made the case for a so-called integrated approach, effectively lightening demands on carmakers by asking for cuts in emissions through "additional measures". Many of those measures will be discussed at the Automotive Forum that is being staged on 23 January as part of the European Motor Show. Janez Potocnik, the European commissioner for research, Günter Verheugen, the commissioner for enterprise and industry, and Peter Carl, the director-general for the environment, are scheduled to take part.

The carmakers will be using the occasion to put forward their green credentials, but they have plenty of work to do if they are to change perceptions of the car industry as an environmental problem.

The European Motor Show in Brussels focuses on green issues, writes Jennifer Rankin.