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John Mahoney19 Dec 2018
NEWS

EU agrees CO2 cuts of 37.5 per cent by 2030

Huge CO2 cuts labelled by European car industry as "unrealistic"; ensures a third of all new cars will be electric or H2-powered by 2030

European car-makers are reeling following an agreement by the European Union to cut CO2 emissions from cars by 37.5 per cent and from vans by 31 per cent by 2030.

In response, the car industry says the targets will threaten jobs and reduce consumer choice.

The new reduction targets, designed to curb climate change, were agreed by EU governments and the European Parliament on Monday and heralded as a compromise since the original proposal was a 30 per cent CO2 cut between 2021 and 2030.

Car-makers will now be forced to meet an interim CO2 cut for cars and vans of 15 per cent by 2025.

Among the harshest critics of the new proposals has been Germany's car industry, which claims that such big cuts demand too much of the industry and that forcing consumers to switch to electric cars could harm its industry and cut jobs.

Other groups labelled the cuts "unrealistic".

Despite the cuts, environmental lobbyists were not satisfied they went far enough, claiming the reductions weren't fast enough to hit climate goals.

Originally, the EU was chasing a 40 per cent cut before it was forced to compromise.

The EU ruling means that come 2030, among the 15 million vehicles sold in Europe annually, around a third of them will have to be pure-electric or hydrogen-powered. Currently, electric vehicles account for around 1.5 per cent of all cars sold.

In Europe, cars are attributed with generating 10 per cent of total CO2 emissions.

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