At the end of March, there was an informal agreement between the European Parliament and the European Union authorities on the monitoring and reporting of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of new heavy vehicles. The draft regulation will be presented to EU ambassadors for approval.
This document is a part of a Community policy aiming to reduce CO2 emissions and the next step to ‚introduce a competitive low-carbon economy’ – reads the official press release.
The European Environment Agency data shows that in 2015 greenhouse gas emissions from road transport were 19 percent higher than 15 years earlier. Road transport was responsible for almost 73 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from transport. Heavy vehicles contributed 18.8 percent to the overall amount of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere.
Therefore, in order to achieve the goals of the climate policy framework, the EU intends to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 20 percent by 2030 compared to the level from 2008.
CO2 emission monitoring system publicly available
The new monitoring and reporting system will help define and apply CO2 emission and fuel consumption standards. The regulation applies to new trucks, buses and coaches. Emissions from heavy vehicles registered in the EU will be measured and monitored for the first time in a standardized manner. Therefore, a central EU register will be created, to which authorities and producers will transmit data on CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. These data will be publicly available – for clarity and for easier comparison of different vehicle models. Similar rules for passenger cars and delivery vans are already in force.
After the approval of the regulation by EU ambassadors, it will be presented at the European Parliament, where it will be put to the vote. The last step will be the adoption of the document by the European Council.
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