Germany proposes delaying 95g target to 2024 as Cars and CO2 vote returns
Fri 27 September 2013
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European member states are expected to vote on the delayed Cars and CO2 regulation this week but reports suggest that Germany is trying a last-minute push to reject it on new grounds.
Germany was reported by European Voice to be engaged in a frantic last-minute push to derail a deal on car CO2 emission limits, distributing a proposal to ministers at a recent competitiveness council meeting in Brussels to drastically alter what was agreed.
After months of delay, the Lithuanian presidency last week scheduled a member state vote on the deal for Wednesday (2 October). The deal with MEPs was reached in June, but in a highly unusual move Germany blocked a Council vote to ratify the deal. Germany gathered enough member state support to delay the vote by pressuring the Irish presidency and other smaller countries, according to sources.
The new CO2 limits are reported to be being fiercely resisted by the German car industry, and there was fear about what effect an approval would have on the German elections, scheduled for 22 September. With the elections passed and Angela Merkel returned to government, the issue has been put back on the agenda. There is no longer enough member state support for the German delay.
At last week's council the Germans circulated a proposal to delay the introduction of the new 95g CO2/km limit, from 2020 to 2024. “The issue of flexibility has not yet been sufficiently addressed,” the confidential memo reads. It suggests a phase-in of the limit where only 80% of new cars would have to meet it in 2020, 85% in 2021, 90% in 2022, 95% in 2023 and 100% in 2024.
“This approach would allow to combine the reduction target, which would remain the basis of the regulation, with the necessary flexibility in the introductory phase,” the memo says.
According to green transport group T&E, this change would translate to a 104g CO2/km limit in 2020.
The suggestion is completely new. Previously, Germany's efforts to make the target easier to meet were focused on expanding the ‘supercredits' scheme in which electric vehicles count more toward a fleet's emissions average than heavy cars.
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