Fierce battle ahead over Brussels’ plans to cap car emissions

A fierce debate over European Commission’s ambitious plans to compel vehicle manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a roughly 20 percent within five years seems to be imminent now. On one hand, the plan was vehemently criticized by environmentalist branding it as too little too late and as a gimmick to appease the industry and Germany in particular. On the other side of the story, Germany seems to be unruffled with the latest plan. The core element in Brussels’ strategy is to transform Europe into a ground-breaking low-carbon economy. In a situation when alarming climate change warnings pressing governments hard to take action in this direction, the plan would compel carmakers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 130 grams per km by 2012. While the commission was fiercely condemned by environmentalists, it is also likely to face bruising battle with the car lobby in the effort to make the blueprint a binding legislation. The German luxury car maker, Porsche, has argued that the European car industry is being trapped in a war waged by French and Italian small car makers against Germany. In the meanwhile, carmaker’s association has stated that the prospective rules would cost some €4,000 extra price on a car and it can see thousands of jobs exported from Europe. Earlier the EU has announced that it is planning to cut 20 percent from European’s greenhouse emissions by 2020 and pushing it further to worldwide agreement for 30 percent. However, the proposed rules are likely to set a stage for confrontation with the oil industry as well as it is expected that the rules will force car industry to use bio-fuels. Environmentalists have said that the cap on car emissions does not go far enough and the EU has succumbed to pressure from the car industry and watered down its target of reducing carbon dioxide from new cars. Recently a German minister had threatened legal action after the commission cut Germany’s emission allocation in the EU carbon trading scheme. The EU reacting to the stance taken by the Germany had said that, ‘unfair” to tailor allocations to countries’ wishes’.