Tougher rules on car emissions in pipeline

Date: 14/12/1995

By Michael Mann

ENVIRONMENTAL lobbies have expressed surprise at the positive approach adopted by the European Commission in its draft proposals for limiting car emissions and for fuel specifications in the first decade of next century.

But the plan is bound to spark protests from the industry. Despite claims by European car-makers that the imposition of tight emission standards could cost over 9 billion ecu every year, the Commission will propose stricter standards than most had expected.

A proposal, which is expected to be presented to the Commission on 20 December, will call for reductions in legal emissions for vehicles entering service after the year 2000 and may provisionally suggest even further cuts for 2005.

“It should get the nod before Christmas, provided that the rest of the Commission can be brought on board. Commissioner Bangemann's people don't seem to have too much against it,” said one environmental lobbyist.

In a draft on which the final proposal will be based, the Commission suggests two alternatives for emission standards after 2005. Separate proposals are put forward for petrol and diesel engines.

Before finalising its ideas, the Commission will have to decide between an approach which goes “just beyond the best available technology for the year 2000”, the option clearly favoured by Directorate-General III (industry), and “very ambitious year 2005 target values”, the preferred option of DGXI (environment).

No firm decision has yet been made as to whether the values established should be used purely for regulatory purposes or whether they could also be used as a basis for a system of fiscal incentives, which would be the responsibility of the member states.

The Commission is also expected to present its controversial Green Paper on fair road pricing on 20 December. This will suggest a system of “push and pull measures to ensure that the true price of road transport is reflected”, according to Commission officials.

In a wide-ranging discussion document, the Commission will point to the advantages of differential pricing for different road users and the advances in technology that makes this possible.

The Commission's ideas on emission standards form part of its response to the 'auto-oil programme', a study based in seven European cities into the best methods of reducing air pollution from road transport, and compiled under the joint stewardship of the Commission and industry bodies. The proposals were formulated after consultations in the Motor Vehicle Emissions Group (MVEG), which includes experts from the member states.

While pleasantly surprised at the Commission's apparent willingness to go beyond what was absolutely required of it, Gijs Kuneman, of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, stressed that his organisation would prefer standards to go even further, pointing out that the German environment ministry had proposed tougher limits.

“The number of cars on the roads is continuing to increase and several older generation vehicles are still in use, so even these improvements will not necessarily have much of an effect on air quality,” he said.

In a letter to the MVEG, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) calls for proposals to go still further, stressing the importance of long-term testing of vehicles to ensure their compliance with the regulations throughout their entire useful lives and underlining the importance of much tighter fuel specifications. Areas of most concern remain sulphur and benzene levels.

The proposals come in the wake of calls from ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, for the full findings of the auto-oil study to be published “before the Commission brings forward emission proposals for the year 2000”.

ACEA pointed to auto-oil's conclusions that, even based on existing legislation, carbon monoxide and benzene emissions would no longer be a problem anywhere in Europe by 2010.