The German car maker Volkswagen has announced plans for a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions between 2006 and 2015 to achieve an average of 120g/km from new cars sold.
The announcement enables VW to undershoot by 12g/km its
obligatory target for CO2 emissions. The company says it will invest €62.4
billion worldwide plus an extra €14 billion for China over the next five
years. Environmental campaigners welcomed the news, especially as
Volkswagen was one of the worst-performing car makers in T&E’s index for
carbon emissions, but said the 120g objective showed that the car industry
didn’t need to water down the originally proposed 120g target to 130g when
the EU’s emissions limits were agreed in 2009.
Europe must stand firm over its future targets for carmakers as it cannot afford to fall further behind China.
The decision to create a Europe-wide carbon price was right but creates significant political risk. The good news is it can still be fixed.
It's about time the EU requires parts of key products to be made locally – and nowhere is this more urgent than in the battery sector.