Connie Hedegaard, EU Commissioner for Climate Action, said:
“The European Parliament and the EU governments reach a deal on the European Commission’s car emissions proposal: the 95g CO2/km 2020 target is secured and there is a limited use of supercredits. Also, the European Commission is asked to propose a 2025 target by end-2015.”
Key details of the agreement:
- Emissions target: The agreement will reduce average CO2 emissions from new cars to 95g per kilometre from 2020, as proposed by the Commission. This represents a 40% reduction from the mandatory 2015 target of 130g/km. The target is an average for each manufacturer’s new car fleet; some models will emit less than the average and some will emit more.
- 2025 target: The Commission is required to propose by end-2015 a further emissions reduction target to take effect in 2025. This target will have to be in line with the Union’s long-term climate goals.
- ‘Super credits’ for low-emission vehicles:The Regulation will give manufacturers additional incentives to produce cars with emissions of 50g CO2/km or less (in practice these would be electric or plug-in hybrid cars). Each low-emitting car will be counted as 2 vehicles in 2020, 1.67 in 2021, 1.33 in 2022 and then as one vehicle from 2023 onwards. These ‘super credits’ will help manufacturers further reduce the average emissions of their new car fleet. However, to prevent the scheme from undermining the environmental integrity of the legislation, there will be a 2.5 g/km cap per manufacturer on the contribution that super credits can make to their target in any year.
- Exemption for small producers: To minimise the administrative burden, manufacturers of less than 1 000 cars per year registered in the EU will not have to meet any emissions target.
- Test procedure: Council and Parliament agreed that more realistic test procedures to inter aliameasure fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from cars and vans will enter into force at the earliest opportunity.
Next steps
The agreement must still be confirmed by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, after which the Regulation will be formally adopted.
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