European Commission Mulling Interim CO2 Emissions Standard For Trucks

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

An interim carbon dioxide emissions standard for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, for implementation in 2025, is currently being mulled by the European Commission, reps have revealed.

The proposed 2025 standard would of course be followed by a stricter 2030 standard, but the idea is simply to get the ball rolling.

As it stands, the European Union doesn’t play host to a carbon emissions standard relating to large trucks at all — meaning that the European Union is lagging the USA, China, Canada, Japan, and others in that regard.

That’s a notable reality because the emissions from the trucking sector in Europe currently account for around a quarter of total road transport emissions — representing a substantial problem from the perspective of greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, in other words.

“We are looking at several options, one being to have a target in 2025, as we have proposed for cars, another one for 2030,” commented Alexandre Paquot, the head of the Road Transport Unit at the Commission’s climate department.

Reuters provides more: “The Commission is expected to propose its CO2 targets in May, following which the proposal will need to be agreed by EU lawmakers and national governments. The EU wants to curb greenhouse gas emissions from transport as part of a drive to cut emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

“Cars and vans already face a limit of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km) by 2021 and the Commission last year proposed tougher emissions limits for 2030. Campaign group Transport & Environment, which organized the event, said the Commission ought to take into account research showing new diesel trucks can be 24% more fuel efficient by 2025.”

Members of the local trucking industry (that is, truck manufacturers) reportedly support the two-step approach to the imposition of carbon standards. The MAN CEO, for instance, has voiced support for a preliminary standard to be followed by a more ambitious one.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre