The European Commission has announced a proposal to raise the minimum level of diesel tax for commercial vehicles and bring it into line with taxes on petrol.
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Nina Renshaw of Transport and Environment (T&E), the sustainable transport campaign group said:
“Raising the minimum level of tax on diesel is a step in the right direction. Fuel tax increases lead to improved
operational efficiencies and therefore lower CO2 emissions, it’s that simple. CO2 emissions from road transport shot up by 20% in Europe between 1995 and 2003. But in Germany where the fuel price increased by 36%, emissions actually decreased by 3%.”
Higher diesel taxes would bring the road freight transport sector a step closer to covering its full costs, according to T&E.
The full cost of road freight transport in Europe including infrastructure, congestion, accidents, air and noise pollution and climate change is some €200 billion a year. Only one quarter of that figure is currently recovered through commercial diesel fuel taxes, approximately €50 billion per year in Europe.
T&E is also calling for diesel to be taxed at a higher rate than petrol to reflect higher CO2 emissions per litre of fuel.
“A litre of diesel burned releases 12 per cent more CO2 into the atmosphere than a litre of petrol so the minimum tax should also be 12% higher than that on petrol. Cheap diesel is a historical anomaly” said Renshaw.
