EU pushes to cut CO2 emission from trucks by 30%

The call to cut CO2 emissions continues with the EU now explicitly targeting trucks for the first time. Greenhouse gas emission by transport’s heavy weights is to be reduced by 30 percent by 2030, a draft states that will be out for review this Thursday.

++ This report has been updated. Kindly find all the latest information at the bottom. ++

The proposal comes from the EU Commission and has been quoted by Reuters before publication. Once parliament and the member states agree, it would be the first regulation of CO2 emissions from trucks in Europe. Other states such as Japan, China or even the USA have introduced such targets before.

For the EU, the Commission is allegedly calling for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. It is less ambitions than campaigners as well as France and other EU countries had been hoping for, that were calling for a more ambitious CO2 reduction target of 24 percent for 2025 and 34-45 percent for 2030.

Still, 30 percent would be about double as what the industry had lobbied for. They had asked for 16 percent tail-pipe CO2 reduction between 2019 and 2030, with an intermediate target of 7 percent in 2025.

The draft legislation as seen by Reuters also includes mid-term target – a higher one of 15 percent and would introduce a zero emission credit system not unlike the ZEV credits Tesla has been benefitting from in California.

In Europe, credits would be rewarded to those manufacturers who invest in low-carbon technologies. For those on the buying side, the credits would offset a manufacturer’s annual CO2 targets for heavy duty vehicles by no more than 3 percent and by 1.5 percent for small lorries and buses.

If the EU Parliament and national governments agree, a 30 percent target would cut about 54 million tonnes of CO2 from Europe’s emissions from 2020 to 2030, or roughly the size of Sweden’s yearly output, estimates the Commission.

Greenhouse gas emissions from trucks and buses account for about a quarter of pollution caused by transport in the European Union.

Update May 17: This has now been confirmed and the draft states above mentioned targets, i.e. 30 percent less emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.

reuters.com (original source), europa.eu (official draft, update)