Sometimes it seems like industry directly dictates the laws that politicians draw up. And it’s just been revealed that our old friends Volkswagen are leading the way against green EU legislation.
Yesterday German media went wild as a leaked letter revealed that the EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger assured VW CEO Martin Winterkorn that he shouldn’t worry about binding CO2 limits for cars after 2020.
Oettinger has campaigned for significantly weaker car fuel efficiency standards and enforced several loopholes that will undermine the EU climate goals for 2020. Now this letter strongly implies that Oettinger is doing what VW has asked him to do.
Greenpeace has also received information showing that the German state of Lower Saxony – the home of Volkswagen - has been lobbying against the addition of transport CO2 emissions in German climate policy – and proposing tricks to postpone the setting of binding emissions targets beyond 2020. Could this by any chance be related to VW?
Now more than ever, the European Union must come together to back binding car fuel efficiency targets – and think of our climate, not the short term interests of car company lobbyists.
Volkswagen, calling itself No. 1 for environmental standards, refuses to support loophole-free reduction targets at the EU and has consistently failed to introduce its fuel-efficient technology as standard in new vehicles like the new Golf 7.
We’ve laid out in detail how Volkswagen could do this to its cars. But the company won’t liste - and continues to lobby against binding EU targets.
Tell VW what you think of their dodgy lobbying. Tweet @volkswagen and comment on their Facebook posts, telling them to stop lobbying the EU commissioners and governments to water down the EU car fuel efficiency legislation.
