After months of intense lobbying, Germany has convinced European Union environmental ministers to keep 2020 new car carbon dioxide emissions standards at 130 grams per kilometer instead of the proposed, stricter 95g/km standard. The German government argued that the tighter regulations would cost jobs and hurt German automakers. BMW and Mercedes-Benz produce larger and heavier cars than other European car companies like Fiat and Renault and they would have a more difficult experience trying to meet the new CO2 standards.
The CO2 standards are a stand-in for fuel economy regulations, with the 95g/km rating the equivalent of fuel consumption of 4 liters pr 100 kilometers (59 U.S. mpg). The EU commission had earlier approved the more rigorous emissions standards, but Germany put together an effective coalition of countries to lobby for the change to be delayed until 2024. The UK and Poland supported the German effort while Belgium, France and Italy backed the 95 g/km standard.
Dog bites man. No surprise here. The quickest way for a regulator to lose his/her job is to try to enforce an unenforceable regulation.
Tell that to American energy companies forced to use a fluid that doesn’t even exist in large quantities and therefore are fined for disobeying a law that they cannot possibly abide by.
What fluid are you referring to?
Excuse me, I meant refinaries
http://m.prnewswire.com/news-releases/afpm-sues-epa-over-agencys-mandate-to-use-non-existent-biofuels-158485365.html
The EU regulators may have seen the latest IPCC assessment and noticed CO2 keeps going up while there has been a 15 year pause in temperature increases. The argument that CO2 is the most potent greenhouse gas is getting shaky.
Alas, you have been misinformed. It is true, however, that the originally proposed 2020 light vehicle EU CO2 regulations would have made almost no meaningful impact on total global CO2 emissions – just maybe a 1% reduction with luck.
Great graphic with a lot of info sans words. Fun figuring out which blob corresponds to exactly which country. Would be interesting to see the same graphic but with all passenger cars changed to last year new car registrations only. Maybe you could overlay the VAT, which might function to discourage buying a new(er) car.
VAT is not the only car tax.
The UK resembles a fat pink rabbit eating a flower.
so the 690,000 euros the Quandt family (partial owners of BMW) donated are paying off already…
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/bmw-quandt-familie-spendet-an-cdu-kritik-von-parteienrechtlern-a-927959.html
This may not be much money in US campaign financing. but Germany has public campaign financing and this is a huge donation
I feel that’s a bit too focused. The reason why Germany got the delay is because the car industry plays a huge role in the German economy, Germany specializes in big autos, and right now it’s Germany keeping the EU from falling apart.