As is too often the case in climate and energy issues, the real story is revealed by low-key documents not by up front debate.
The UK Government is committed to decarbonising car transport – they have said in the Carbon Plan (p53) that by 2040 all new cars and vans need to be zero carbon. This is a laudable aim, and we would expect Government action to line up behind that.
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What the documents reveal, however, is that Department for Transport briefings have been advising UK MEPs to vote down amendments to EU regulations that would make those low carbon vehicles more likely.
The vote was to take place in the European Parliament Industry Committee, and concerned how strong the emissions target would be for cars in 2025. It is widely expected that there will be a target agreed for 2020. The form this would take is that the average new car would emit 95 grams of CO2 per km (gCO2/km) travelled, or about 69 miles per gallon. However, the long term direction of EU policy – and clear signals to the car manufacturers, who have fairly long time tables for design and production of new models – could also be set by an indicative target for 2025.
The Committee was looking to amend a proposal from the European Commission, which had not initially proposed a target. Fiona Hall, a UK member of the European Parliament, was proposing indicative targets of 65-75gCO2/km (101-87 mpg). However thebriefing from UK Government (p27) told UK MEPs to vote against it.
In this particular case, the Liberal Democrat Minister Norman Baker was asking the MEPs to vote against amendments submitted by another UK Lib Dem, Fiona Hall MEP.
In fairness to HMG, they do say that “beyond 2020 some form of mandatory and progressively tighter standards on CO2 emissions will continue to be an effective way to deliver carbon reductions and this will should tough targets”[sic] but they believe that this should come after a review of the regulatory regime. I would argue that with a reasonable (although by no means perfect) indicative target on the table the UK Govt should either back it or propose something stronger, rather than dilute it with fine words but no actual support.
It’s true that there also need to be changes to the regulatory regime, but that setting an indicative level of ambition now is more helpful than leaving everything up in the air. It’s not like the EU are the only people thinking about this. Even the USA has a target for 2025 of 93g/km by 2025 (about 70mpg). We are only 5 years ahead of the home of the gas guzzler. And developing countries likeChina also have regulations to make their new cars average 56mpg in seven years time.
There are also likely to be significant economic advantages to UK economy in going for a low carbon vehicles. Proposals like this not only reduce CO2 emissions, but save car drivers money, and reduce EU oil imports, helping the economy. Both would seem to be valuable, so it’s disappointing that the UK is not putting its support where its rhetoric is.
