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Less greenwashing in transport: EU moves to unify greenhouse gas reporting

The European Parliament has initiated steps to develop a unified methodology for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from transport services in the European Union. The move aims to prevent greenwashing and provide consumers with accurate information about the environmental performance of transport services.

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Following a vote in the Transport and Environment Committees, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have confirmed new rapporteurs Norbert Lins (EPP, DE) and Antonio Decaro (S&D, IT) to lead the negotiations with the Council. The draft rules propose standard greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions metrics: CO2 emitted per tonne-kilometre for freight transport and CO2 emitted per passenger kilometre for passenger transport. 

MEPs insist that this data should be clearly disclosed and substantiated by evidence available via weblink or QR code.

In a parallel development, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) has welcomed the endorsement of the CountEmissions EU report by the European Parliament’s plenary.

“The Parliament understood the need to clarify certain aspects of the proposal by, for example, setting concrete deadlines for the establishment of the two EU databases that are needed to fulfil the condition to use secondary data,” Raluca Marian, IRU EU Advocacy Director.

The CountEmissions EU initiative, part of the European Commission’s “Greening Freight Package” introduced in July 2023, aims to provide a uniform approach for measuring and disclosing GHG emissions from EU passenger and goods transport services. The regulation includes provisions to ease the reporting obligations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), allowing them to use secondary data for reporting purposes and exempting them from verification requirements, significantly reducing their administrative burden. Companies within the regulation’s scope will undergo annual verification to ensure compliance.

The latest report outlines the steps road transport companies must take to report their GHG emissions, with a particular focus on easing the reporting obligations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The regulation allows SMEs to use secondary data for reporting and exempts them from verification requirements, significantly reducing their administrative burden. Companies within the regulation’s scope will undergo annual verification to ensure compliance.

“The Parliament followed the Council in confirming the ISO 14083 standard as the reference methodology. IRU is in favour of a full life-cycle approach as it is more comprehensive than the well-to-wheel methodology. However, within the CountEmissions EU regulatory context and given its complexities, it should only be considered at a later stage and only if this is done in parallel with the ISO standard,” Raluca Marian added.

The European Parliament’s adoption of the CountEmissions EU report also includes provisions for establishing two EU databases to facilitate the use of secondary data. 

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