2 Promotion of clean road vehicles
| (27162)
5130/06
COM(05) 634
+ ADD 1
| Draft Directive on the promotion of clean road vehicles
Commission Staff Working Document: Annex to the draft Directive on the promotion of clean road vehicles
|
| Legal base | Article 175(1)EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Document originated | 21 December 2005
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| Deposited in Parliament | 11 January 2006
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| Department | Transport |
| Basis of consideration | EM of 30 January 2006
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | For debate in European Standing Committee
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Background
2.1 In recent years, the Commission has put forward a number of
Communications on energy, addressing such areas as security of
supply, and the need for efficiency savings if the Community is
to improve air quality standards and at the same time reduce greenhouse
gas emissions so as to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
These have highlighted the continuing growth in the number of
vehicles, and the consequent need, despite the progress already
made, for further measures to reduce emissions —
points emphasized again recently in the Commission's review of
the Community's Sustainable Development Strategy[5]
and the proposed Biomass Action Plan.[6]
2.2 The principal means of reducing vehicle emissions
have been the mandatory "Euro" standards, first introduced
in 1970 as a necessary condition for obtaining vehicle type approval,
and progressively tightened since then. In addition, there has
since 1999 been a more stringent, but voluntary, "Enhanced
Environmentally friendly Vehicle" (EEV) standard for those
over 3.5 tonnes. We are reporting separately on a proposal[7]
to introduce the next stage (Euro V) of mandatory emission controls
for new cars and light vans up to 3.5 tonnes weight. This document
seeks to encourage the development of a market for "clean"
vehicles over 3.5 tonnes meeting the EEV standard.
The current proposal
2.3 The Commission notes that this standard was originally
introduced as a means of distinguishing the improved environmental
performance of natural gas engines from the diesel engines of
that period, but that it is only slightly more stringent that
the new Euro V standard which will become compulsory for all new
trucks and buses from 1 October 2009 (see Annex I). In view of
this, and recent advances in diesel engine technology, it says
that it is now likely that Euro V engines would need little or
no adjustment to meet the EEV standard. However, it also suggests
that, since the technologies required are still more expensive
than those used for conventional vehicles, manufacturers are unlikely
to respond to local or even national incentives, and that action
at Community level is needed to create a market of sufficient
size to provide the necessary economies of scale, and to avoid
the risk of fragmentation.
2.4 Against this background, it is now proposing
that — as foreshadowed in the Sustainable Development Strategy
and the Biomass Action Plan — there should be a requirement
that 25% of vehicles over 3.5 tonnes[8]
purchased or newly leased by the public sector each year should
meet the EEV standard of emission control. (It also says that
an extension of this obligation to passenger cars and light duty
vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tonnes could be considered at
a later stage, once environmentally enhanced performance standards
have been developed for them.) The measure would apply to public
bodies (including those governed by public law) and public undertakings,
as well as operators providing transport services under concession
from a public body, such as a local authority or Transport for
London.
The Government's view
2.5 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 30 January 2006,
the Minister of State at the Department of Transport (Dr Stephen
Ladyman) says that in principle the Government shares the objectives
behind this proposal, and that the UK has given strong support
to the European Technologies Action Plan which has agreed to investigate
the promotion of environmental technologies through performance-based
public procurement requirements.
2.6 However, he says that the Government has a number
of reservations, not least over whether the proposal complies
with the principle of subsidiarity, on the grounds that it is
not clear that public procurement to achieve a policy objective
of this kind is best directed at Community level, or that fragmentation
of the market is otherwise likely to occur, given that the EEV
standard is already laid down in Community law. He also expresses
doubts as to whether such an approach is likely to be effective
in this case, and whether the EEV standard is the best reference
to adopt, suggesting that it might require diesel engines to be
tuned in such a way as to increase emissions of carbon dioxide:
and he points out that it is uncertain how the proposal as drafted
would affect the 80% of bus services outside London which are
provided by private sector companies, rather than under contract
to a local authority.
2.7 The Minister says that it has not at this stage
been possible to estimate with any precision how many vehicles
would be covered by the proposal, and hence what its likely costs
and benefits would be. He says that a more detailed analysis will
be provided as more information becomes available, but that, in
the meantime, if public procurement was assumed to account for
20% of the annual bus market in the UK, the overall cost of meeting
the EEV standard as compared with the current Euro IV standard
might be just under £2 million a year. He adds that this
would be likely to fall, as the technology becomes more widespread,
and as the Euro V standard (where the cost differential would
fall from around £3,500 per vehicle to between £1,000
and £2,000) enters into force in 2009. In addition, there
may be differences in operating and maintenance costs, as well
as in those arising from the extent to which the proposal leads
to the use of electric or hybrid vehicles or those using compressed
natural gas.
Conclusion
2.8 Whilst it is undoubtedly desirable that the
use of clean vehicles should be encouraged, it seems clear that,
quite apart from the difficulties of estimating what the costs
and benefits of this proposal might be, it gives rise to a number
of more fundamental reservations, relating not just to whether
it is necessary (still less effective), but to whether it complies
with the principle of subsidiarity. Consequently, whilst we would
of course want to see any more detailed cost-benefit analysis
which the Government is able to provide when it has more information,
we feel that, as it stands, the proposal raises issues which the
House will wish to consider further, including the justification
for a statutory requirement obliging the public sector when purchasing
new vehicles of this kind to have greater regard than the private
or voluntary sectors to environmental standards. We are therefore
recommending it for debate in European Standing Committee.
ANNEX I
EURO IV, EURO V AND EEV EMISSION LIMITS (g/kWh)
| Carbon monoxide
| Non-methane
hydrocarbons
| Methane
| Oxides of
Nitrogen
| Particulate
matter
|
| Euro IV | 4.0
| 0.55 |
1.1 | 3.5
| 0.03 |
| Euro V | 4.0
| 0.55 |
1.1 | 2.0
| 0.03 |
| EEV | 3.0
| 0.40 |
0.65 | 2.0
| 0.02 |
5 (27116) 15796/05; see HC 34-xvii (2005-06), para
1 (1 February 2006). Back
6
(27113) 15741/05; see HC 34-xvii (2005-06), para 7 (1 February
2006). Back
7
(27173) 5163/06; see para 7. Back
8
In addition to trucks and buses, this would include HGVs owned
by public bodies, refuse trucks, fire engines, and some vehicles
owned by the armed forces. Back
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