Emission performance standards for new passenger cars

The Council held a policy debate on a draft regulation setting emission performance standards for new passenger cars as part of the Community's integrated approach to reduce CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicles.

The debate was structured according to the questions suggested by the presidency in view of the need to provide guidance for further examination by the Council preparatory bodies. A number of delegations provided written contributions.

The following observations were made:

• the Commission's proposal setting performance emission standards for new passenger cars addresses the growing climate change impact from road transport and ensures that this sector contributes to the achievement of the Community's overall objective of limiting the global annual temperature increase to a maximum of 2°C above pre-industrial levels;
• delegations supported the integrated approach as proposed by the Commission, that is, the target of 120g CO2/km by 2012, in the knowledge that improvements in motor technology would have to reduce emissions to 130g CO2/km while complementary measures would contribute a further emissions cut of up to 10 g CO2/km;
• the need to strike the right balance between, on the one hand, competitiveness and competition neutrality and, on the other, the need to reduce CO2 emissions from road transport;
• the introduction of long-term objectives was mentioned by several delegations and there is a need to study the possibility of including them in the proposed legislation, in order to give the right signal to the industry.

The presidency will continue to work taking into consideration the outcome of today's policy debate and future discussions within the Council preparatory bodies.