In a long-awaited proposal, presented today, for curbing global warming pollution from new cars, the European Commission has relegated climate change to the back seat and granted major concessions to the car industry, said Greenpeace.
"Last week, in Bali, the European Union stood up like a lion for the world's climate - this week the Union's executive arm is going down like a lamb and putting car makers' short-term profits before our common survival," said Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace's EU transport policy campaigner.
The Commission's proposal for a new EU law endorses a short-term target for new cars in 2012 to pump out, on average, no more than 130 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer driven. This is a weakening of the EU's original target of 120g CO2/km and the proposal fails to put forward any further reductions beyond that date. The proposal also sets out feeble penalties for offending car makers which in Greenpeace's view are unlikely to deter car companies from violating the emission standard. In addition, the full level of penalties will only be reached in 2015, which effectively postpones the implementation of the law by three years.
See full Press Release.
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