Isra-Mart srl:EU motors ahead with van emissions targets

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The EU this week moved to curb emissions from vans by imposing new fuel-efficiency targets, although campaigners remain adamant the proposed standards are not stringent enough to reduce businesses' fuel bills.

Environment ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday voted for a deal to cut carbon dioxide emissions from vans by around 14 per cent to an average of 175 grams per kilometre by 2017.

An agreement was reached at the second time of asking, after Germany, home to car giants Mercedes and Volkswagen, objected to a much tougher target of 135 grams per kilometre by 2020, put forward by the European Commission last week.

Germany's environment minister, Norbert Roettgen, hailed the new standards as a good compromise deal. "It achieves substantial CO2 reductions – to my knowledge 27 per cent," he said. "It is feasible, it is a technological challenge, but it keeps us in a leadership position."

EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard similarly welcomed the deal, hailing the new rules as "an important step forward in curbing transport emissions".

"Although less ambitious than our proposal, it will stimulate innovation," she added. "It will also generate fuel savings for consumers, mainly small- and medium-size enterprises."

However, green campaigners felt that given the significant efficiency improvements manufacturers have made in recent years, the watered down target will put little pressure on car firms to step up fuel efficiency efforts.

"The industry said it couldn't make a 14 per cent improvement in van efficiency over nine years; meanwhile, it managed to improve car efficiency at more than three times that rate last year," said Kerstin Meyer, senior campaigner at lobbying group Transport and Environment. "Policymakers must to a better job of holding the industry to account when it makes such claims."

She warned that lax CO2 standards would see vans continuing to consume high levels of fuel, piling a further cost burden onto small businesses.

"The automotive industry, which has benefited from billions of euros of taxpayer money in subsidies, low-interest loans and research grants has once again bullied politicians into getting an easy ride," she said. "Meanwhile, thousands of small businesses that have received little help in the crisis but depend on vans to run their operations will suffer from higher fuel bills for years to come."