Car carbon dioxide emissions down 10%

Although the Commission welcomes the progress made, it warns that further measures are needed to meet car emissions targets of 120g CO2/km by 2010. The Commission and car industries have agreed preliminary targets of around 170g CO2/km by 2003 and 140g CO2/km by 2008/9.

“The growth in CO2 emissions from transport remains one of the big challenges for our climate objectives,” says Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström. “We will start discussions with the industry next year on how to further reduce emissions from passenger cars.”

Fuel efficiency improvements for diesel cars have been significantly better than those for gasoline, says the report. Car ecolabelling and incentives such as annual circulation taxes are also planned to promote greater fuel efficiency (see related story). The average annual reduction rate in emissions has to be 2%, about 4g/km per year, to meet targets, says the report.