EU Panel Eases Proposal on Truck Urban Air Pollution (Update1)
By Jonathan Stearns
July 15 (Bloomberg) -- A European Parliament committee loosened a proposed reduction in urban air pollution by truckmakers including Daimler AG and Volvo AB, scaling back a push to prevent deaths from lung illnesses.
The European Union assembly's environment committee said the EU limit on truck and bus emissions of nitrogen oxides should be 75 percent lower in 2013. The European Commission, the 27-nation EU's regulatory arm, in December proposed an 80 percent reduction.
The committee said the deeper cut requires technologies that would lead to higher fuel consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse blamed for climate change. Anja Weisgerber, a German member of the Christian Democrats, the EU Parliament's biggest political group, won support for an amendment scaling back the reduction.
``This amendment provides a win-win solution on both air pollutants and greenhouse gases by delivering a better trade-off between nitrogen-oxide and carbon-dioxide emissions,'' Weisgerber said in a statement accompanying the change approved today in Brussels. The committee backed a planned cut in the EU limit for another urban air pollutant, particulate matter, by 67 percent in the same period.
Tighter vehicle-emission standards are part of a European campaign to reduce early deaths from air pollution by 40 percent to 230,000 a year by 2020 compared with 2000. The effort aims to bring health benefits of at least 42 billion euros ($67.2 billion) a year by the target date through less sickness and fewer deaths.
Rules for Cars
The EU has already approved tighter standards for cars as part of the health push. These measures, endorsed by lawmakers in 2006, include a four-fifths cut in particulate-matter emissions from diesel-powered cars and a 25 percent drop in nitrogen-oxide emissions from autos using gasoline.
The new draft legislation covering heavy-duty vehicles ``will significantly contribute to a further improvement of air quality in Europe,'' the commission said Dec. 21. ``There remain significant air quality problems throughout the European Union, especially in urban areas and densely populated regions.''
The commission's proposal would lower the EU limit on truck and bus emissions of nitrogen oxides to 0.4 gram per kilowatt-hour (g/kWh) in 2013 from 2 grams already set for 2008. The limit for particulate matter would fall to 0.01 g/kWh from 0.03 over the same period.
Lower Limit
The environment committee voted to lower the limit for nitrogen oxides to 0.5 g/kWh -- the level proposed by Weisgerber.
The committee also rejected proposals by Matthias Groote, a German Socialist member who is steering the draft law through the EU Parliament, to deepen the cut for particulate matter to 0.005 g/kWh and to bring forward the date for the entry into force of this limit and the one for nitrogen oxides by a year.
``Residents of the big German cities are the big losers,'' Groote said in a statement. ``That is irresponsible.''
The draft legislation needs the support of the full 785-seat Parliament, which is due to vote in late September, and national governments, which will give their verdict later.
The draft law by the commission would establish limits that are similar to U.S. standards set for 2010, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association representing companies including Germany's Daimler and Sweden's Volvo, the world's two largest truckmakers, said in December. That proposal poses a ``technical challenge'' while being a welcome step toward global standards, the association said at the time. |
