On Wednesday 20 September, Coreper (the committee representing the EU member states) will discuss another draft text on the Euro 7 vehicle pollution standards presented by the Spanish Presidency, with a vote on the text expected in the European Council on the 25th of September.
Air pollution in European cities is appalling and continues to exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. Overall in Europe around 400,000 premature deaths per year and a wide range of serious illnesses including heart disease, lung disease and cancer are caused by air pollution. While European’s breathe filthy air from polluting petrol and diesel cars, vans and trucks, Europe’s car industry has lobbied intensively against better and more stringent emissions standards proposed by the European Commission. This is despite new stricter Ambient Air Quality Guidelines for pollution being adopted by the European Parliament just last week.
“This proposal is a disaster for air pollution in Europe’s cities.The Commission should think whether or not they even want this joke of a regulation to be adopted. By caving into automaker threats, our politicians are condemning people to avoidable ill health and premature death for decades to come. It gives carmakers a license to greenwash polluting Euro 6 cars as ‘clean’ Euro 7 without delivering any added reduction in toxic tailpipe pollution. Cars approved under such a weak proposal should not be labeled as Euro 7. Instead, they should be labeled as Euro 6f to reflect only the minor improvements to emissions monitoring, anti-tampering measures and non-exhaust emissions.” – Anna Krajinska, Manager, Vehicle Emissions and Air Quality
Compared to the Commission’s draft, in this new proposal by the Spanish Presidency:
T&E's annual overview of key transport trends, challenges and achievements
European transport is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, but electric vehicles are on the charge as the EU’s green policies start to bite. Powerin...
State of European Transport report shows that transport emissions are starting to fall as the EV market grows, but carbon savings are being undermined...
T&E reaction to Automotive Plan: Positive steps on fleets, but the weakening of CO₂ targets and vague support for battery production will see Europe f...