It’s the right decision of course. The proposal was for yet another one of the many EU rules where the benefits are doubtful and the implementation would have had no measurable effects on the desired outcome.
But entirely due to German protectionism for its performance car industry – and much to the disappointment of Ford – the limit of 95g of CO2 per km for any vehicle’s emissions has now been delayed at least till 2024! Well Done Germany!
E 350 BlueTec
“The emissions limits are part of the EU’s drive to switch Europe to a low-carbon economy and slow the impact of climate change.”
The EU’s CO2 restrictions proposals for power plants and for aircraft and this one for cars are part of of a long line of “feel-good” proposals which the Greens are so fond of — full of sound and idiocy, accomplishing nothing. So far the EU has not proposed any restrictions on CO2 in human breath.
Hopefully by 2024, the idiocy of CO2 restrictions will have been recognised.
The German government has persuaded its EU partners to delay introducing new limits on CO2 emissions from cars. Environment ministers agreed to revise a deal, reached in July, that set a limit of 95g per km for the average car. That target for CO2 emissions was to take effect in 2020.
But Germany, famous for its high-performance cars, says the 95g limit should not take full effect until 2024.
Green activists deplored the new delay as a “shameful sop” to polluters.
A leading German Green Party MEP, Rebecca Harms, accused Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel of “riding roughshod” over the EU’s democratic process, because the 2020 agreement had already been reached between the European Parliament and the Council – the EU ministerial grouping.
“Weakening the agreed 2020 limits, which have long been known, is a shameful sop to German car manufacturers and will slow the development of new technologies to deliver more efficient and less polluting cars,” Ms Harms said after the ministers’ vote. ….
The UK was among the countries that supported the German environment minister’s position on Monday, German ARD news reports.
The German minister, Peter Altmaier, said “it’s not a fight over principles but how we bind the necessary clarity in climate protection with the required flexibility and competitiveness to protect the car industry in Europe”.
Correspondents say there has been intense lobbying by luxury carmakers such as BMW and Daimler, maker of Mercedes, over the EU legislation.
The emissions limits are part of the EU’s drive to switch Europe to a low-carbon economy and slow the impact of climate change.
Tags: CO2 restrictions, European Parliament, European Union, Germany, global warming, performance cars
The k2p blog 
October 16, 2013 at 9:50 pm
Reblogged this on Tallbloke's Talkshop.
October 16, 2013 at 10:48 pm
“A leading German Green Party MEP, Rebecca Harms, accused Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel of “riding roughshod” over the EU’s democratic process, because the 2020 agreement had already been reached between the European Parliament and the Council – the EU ministerial grouping”
There’s a democratic then? When did that start?
October 16, 2013 at 10:52 pm
She’s also a little miffed that Merkel seems to be making the deal with the Social Democrats for the Grand Coalition – which will leave the German Greens even further out in the cold (literally from what I hear about the coming German winter).
October 17, 2013 at 2:49 am
“the necessary clarity in climate protection”; is that code for getting the science right, at last? Die Kalte Sonne starting to have an impact on government?
October 17, 2013 at 4:57 pm
A leading German Green Party MEP, Rebecca Harms, accused Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel of “riding roughshod” over the EU’s democratic process,
E.U. “Democratic”?!
That’s a laugh!
October 18, 2013 at 1:44 am
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October 18, 2013 at 2:38 pm
It seems Germany’s ability to bail-out failing European economies year after year comes with some benefits – like keeping their own economy out of the tank.