Around about now each country in the EU will be making its mind up which way to jump on CO2 emissions from cars. That's what this blog is all about, but it's also part of a bigger picture. Like it or not, climate change is a reality and even the most hardened opponents are beginning to realise that we have to do something about it.

The car industry might be doing their best to get out of reducing emissions made by their own hands every time a car takes to the roads, but if they get away with it, where does that leave climate change?

The car industry can try to shift the responsibility but that isn't going to solve the problem - it just means someone else will have to pay the price.

If the car lobby get their way and delay the 130 g CO2/km limit until 2015 and get out of having a binding 2020 target set, it would reduce the total potential CO2 savings across all EU countries by 11 million tons.

So if not from cars, where will the reductions come from?

We have some ideas, but would those sectors be happy that while the carmakers make a quick getaway, they end up being hit with the bill?

In Germany will Sigmar Gabriel break the news that the steel industry has to make extra savings on CO2 emissions to bail BMW and Daimler out?

In France, will it be down to the farmers to save on CO2 emissions. Will Jean-Louis Borloo going to tell the farmers that they need to use less fertilisers?

In Spain - will it be the tourist industry that has to make the savings. Will all the hotels have to turn off the hot tap and take out the minibars?

In the UK - where supermarkets are busy putting doors on the cold cabinets and setting targets to cut travelling and vehicle emissions, will Ed Milliband ask them to go the extra mile that the car industry has failed to deliver on?

And while the car makers have put their energy into lobbying against change, some of these industries have already been taking action.

Between 1990 and 2006 the German steel industry has reduced CO2 emissions by 8.5%.

And though according to ACEA, CO2 emissions on new cars have fallen by 13% between 1995 and 2004, they are unlikely to hit their own voluntary target of 140g per km by 2008.

When you look at the total traffic on our roads, between 1990 and 2006 CO2 emissions from road transport went up by over 26%. The figure does include rail and road freight traffic, but cars make up a hefty 74% of that so it's not hard to see where the bulk of the increase is coming from. So if we are to tackle the problem of CO2 emissions from cars, we still have a long way to go.

In 2006, the German car industry's emissions actually went up by 0.6%.

So if the car industry isn’t going to make the effort, who will end up paying the price?