Commenting on today's announcement of a proposed new EU law on car emissions, Anna Jones, transport campaigner for Greenpeace, said:
"These Brussels bureaucrats must be driven to distraction. They should hang their petrol-heads in shame at their kowtowing to a car industry seemingly obsessed with wrecking the climate.
"The EU has let car manufacturers speed off with a weak proposal that lacks any long-term standards and offers an open road to overweight gas-guzzlers."
The Commission's proposal for a new EU law endorses a short-term target for new cars in 2012 to pump out, on average, no more than 130 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer driven. This is a weakening of the EU's original target of 120g CO2/km and the proposal fails to put forward any further reductions beyond that date. The proposal also sets out feeble penalties for offending car makers which in Greenpeace's view are unlikely to deter car companies from violating the emission standard. In addition, the full level of penalties will only be reached in 2015, which effectively postpones the implementation of the law by three years.
For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
