European Parliament votes to cut emissions from cars

Some great news has come in from Greenpeace lobbyists at the European Parliament, where the EU environment committee have given the thumbs up to reducing CO2 emissions produced by cars.

The group of MEPs resisted efforts by German car manufacturers to weaken down the proposals and have recommended that by 2012 all new cars should emit no more than 130g of CO2 per km (the current EU average is 158g). Even those this doesn't match the 120g level we and other groups were proposing, this is a big turnaround as when the committee went into session, it seemed certain a compromise package riddled with loopholes would get the nod.

As well as the 2012 target, the committee also agreed to a long-term target of 95g per km by 2020 (although currently this is set to be non-binding), and there will be penalties as well: manufacturers will be fined 95 euros for every gram cars in their fleet emit over the average, and that's per car.

The proposal still has to pass the full EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers, but the signs are good and we'll be defending this package every inch of the way.