Compendium: For Better CO2 Regulation of Motor Vehicles in Europe

Core theses: Climate protection

• Europe’s share of the worldwide CO₂ emissions is low and continuously decreasing.
• No solution without China: Europe’s reduction of emissions is being eaten up by growth in emerging economies.
• Motor vehicles account for approximately one-seventh of the CO₂ emissions in the EU. Their share in transportation emissions is declining.

Core theses: CO₂ regulation for motor vehicles

• New vehicles in Europe have become considerably more efficient in recent years.
• CO₂ legislation in Europe shows the most stringent target values in an international comparison.
• Europe has once again tightened the reins on the CO₂ threshold levels for motor vehicles and is requiring a further reduction of CO₂ within an even shorter span of time.
• Even without a further tightening of the CO₂ threshold levels after 2020, the motor vehicle industry is still on track to meet the EU’s climate policy targets by 2030.
• Vehicle fleet threshold levels under 95 grams cannot be achieved with conventional engine types, and the market success of alternative engine types is still uncertain.
• EU environmental legislation is not coherent and, for a long time, had other priorities than CO₂ reduction. This had various consequences, including an increase of CO₂ emissions.
• Today’s CO₂ laws regulate only new vehicles, completely disregarding the remaining vehicle fleet.
• An effective reduction of CO₂ emissions cannot address new vehicles alone but must take a much broader approach.

Core theses: Balance between climate protection and industrial policy

• The EU is targeting a 20 per cent industry share of GDP for the year 2020. This goal is presently a long way away, since industrial and climate protection policy are not yet aligned.
• The CO₂ abatement costs vary greatly between sectors and are most pronounced in the automotive sector.
• Emissions trading as the most economically efficient form of CO₂ regulation can easily be applied to road traffic.