ACEA

ACEA 1998 Commitment has Significantly Cut CO2 Emissions from Cars

ACEA 1998 Commitment has Significantly Cut CO2 Emissions from Cars

The European car industry has signed an agreement in 1998 to reduce CO2 emissions from cars as a sign of its commitment to contribute to tackling climate change. The car industry has delivered on its voluntary commitment (an average cut in CO2 emissions from new cars by 13% between 1995 and 2004, registered by the latest EU Monitoring Report) and will continue to make substantial efforts. But the exact target of 140 gCO2/km by 2008 will be difficult to achieve, because there are numerous factors that have negatively influenced the efforts of the industry.

Fair assessment due: The 1998 Commitment, which was both signed by the industry and the European Commission, recognised explicitly that such external factors could occur and stipulates that counter-productive effects have to be taken into account when assessing the results of the Commitment. This now needs to be done to get a clear and fair picture of past achievements and, more importantly, incorporate the findings into future policy.

The results: The most recent Monitoring Report, delivering 2004 data, shows the ACEA new fleet average was 161g/km, down from 185 in 1995.

• As a proportion of total ACEA registrations, the percentage of cars with CO2 emissions of more than 160 g CO2/km decreased to 36.4 from 80.8 in 1995.
  
• The volume and share of cars emitting 140 gCO2/km or less (petrol + diesel) totalled 29.6 % of new registrations, up from 2.6% in 1995.
  
• Sales of models emitting less than 120g/km came close to 1 million cars, or about 8%;
  
• These figures do not take external developments into account.

The counter-productive effects: The achievements have been realised through technological advances only, and;

• Without the backing from customer demand for fuel-efficiency and
  
• Against a trend towards larger, safer cars.
  
• The industry efforts were also hampered by EU regulations concerning air quality and safety, making cars heavier and larger (external factors).

Need for comprehensive approach: These circumstances need to be addressed. The focus on vehicle technology alone to reduce CO2 emissions from cars, as - again - expressed in the February 2007 CO2 strategy proposal from the European Commission, makes further progress increasingly challenging. Needed is a combination of efforts by all relevant actors involved: car industry, fuel industry, policy makers and drivers.

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