Consumers and environment: availibility of information on fuel economy of new passengers cars

The Community's strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from passenger cars and improve fuel economy was endorsed by the Council in 1996. It aims at achieving an average CO2 emission figure for new passenger cars of 120g CO2/km by 2005, and 2010 at the latest. It is based on three main pillars: - commitments of the automobile industry on fuel economy improvements, aiming at achieving an average CO2 emission figure for new passenger cars of 140g CO2/km by 2008/9; - fuel-economy labelling of cars which aims at ensuring that information relating to the fuel economy and CO2 emissions of new passenger cars offered for sale or lease in the Community is made available to consumers in order to enable consumers to make an informed choice; - the promotion of car fuel efficiency by fiscal measures. In this respect, the Environment Council in October 1999 reiterated the need to study the possibility of establishing a reference framework for fiscal incentives. These pillars are supplemented by research activities. The Council invited the Commission to report about the effectiveness of the strategy regularly. In order to establish a detailed and fully transparent monitoring, the Commission intends to submit reports on an annual basis, meeting at the same time related reporting requests expressed by the Council. The European Parliament should be informed as well. The main findings for the reporting period 1995 to 1999 are: - all associations reduced the average specific CO2 emissions of their cars sold on the EU market; - the average CO2 emissions of new passenger cars decreased as well in all Member States; - all associations increased the diesel share of their fleets within the reporting period. In general, the implementation of the Community's strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from passenger cars and improve fuel economy shows significant progress. Two of the three main pillars (commitments of the car industry and fuel-economy labelling of cars) are in place, intensive work on the third (fiscal measures) is underway. The first set of "Joint Reports" shows that the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) are on the way to match the interim targets. The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) has to increase it efforts significantly. In order to meet the final target of 140g CO2/km, all three associations have to increase their efforts, which is also foreseen in the commitments. To achieve the Community strategy target of 120g CO2/km, it is important that the Community continues to work in developing and implementing the two pillars for consumer information and fiscality.�