In December 2007 the European Commission adopted a proposal to reduce the average emissions of CO2 from new passenger cars in the EU to 130 grams per kilometre by 2012, with additional measures bringing the reduction down to 120g. They have also decided on using weight as a parameter, so that heavier cars can have more generous emissions targets, instead of footprint (track width multiplied by wheelbase). Footprint was put forward in the past as a way to ensure that car makers don’t just make bigger cars to take advantage of the higher allowance. It would be much cheaper to make a car a bit heavier, if you were minded to, than to increase its footprint.

But though the legislation has been put forward by the Commission, it has to go be considered by a number of European Parliament committees before the parliament and the European Council come to a conclusion. A lot of hoops to jump through, but these are crucial hoops – the parliament is expected to go along with the opinion of the committees. That’s if they can agree about what action to take. The legislation also has to be agreed by the Environment, made up of national government Environment Ministers.

This stage is where the horse trading will take place with each committee able to put forward a series of amendments. I read through one of the proposed sets of changes and it’s a pretty confusing affair, with some amendments appearing to cancel others out. And at this stage I can’t really blame anyone who says that the EU is full of bureaucracy and boredom. Except that behind all the talk about article 7 paragraph 3, what is actually at stake here is the future of our planet. How much more important can it get?

The state of play so far:

Neither the the climate committee have put forward opinion. Still to vote at the next session are industry and environment.

You won’t be surprised to learn that industry is championing the car makers. Werner Langen, a German MEP and Christian Democrat, is responsible for the industry committee’s contribution. He want even more delays, to give the car makers until 2015 to implement the rules, a sliding scale that gives more generous allowances for big heavy cars, and much lower penalties for non-compliance. The committee is due to vote on 1st September.

And that just leaves us with environment, who will take into account the other opinions. Led by Guido Sacconi, the committees seems keen on setting targets post 2012, which is a good start. The threat of climate change is not suddenly going to disappear with the medals at the London Olympics.

Sacconi is not so keen on putting forward an amendment that would mean that cars would be assessed on footprint (track width multiplied by wheelbase). It might sound harmless, but footprint is a really important issue, and I’ll explain more about that next time.