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ENVIRONMENT-EUROPE: France and Germany Dilute the Green

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Jun 10 2008 (IPS) - The leaders of France and Germany, the European Union’s two largest car-producing countries, appeared to take their cue from glossy vehicle advertisements this week. Just as such ads routinely seek to convey the impression that vehicles are ecologically benign, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to present an agreement they reached on carbon dioxide (CO2) limits from new cars as a boon for the environment.

In official comments after a meeting in the German town of Straubing Jun. 9, the pair said they were supporting a proposal made by the European Commission that the average car coming on the market should release no more than 120 grams per kilometre of CO2, the main gas blamed for triggering climate change,.

“We have made an important breakthrough on this subject where initially our positions were very, very far apart,” said Merkel. “I am very happy to be able to say that we both support the EU goal of 120 grams per kilometre on all new EU cars by 2012.”

Once environmentalists had digested the detail of the accord the following day, they pointed out that the truth is more nuanced than what the French and German leaders had suggested.

Greenpeace says the accord will leave car-makers considerable room for manoeuvre. Far from requiring that all respect the 120g/km threshold, loopholes in the agreement will allow manufacturers to put vehicles on the market with an average emission level of up to 138 g/km, according to Greenpeace. Merkel has argued that instead of insisting on strict compliance with the 120g/km ceiling, emphasis should be put on overall emission reductions through promoting ‘eco-innovation’ technology.

“We are very far from what we should be doing,” said Greenpeace campaigner Anne Valette. “With such a weak goal (as that set by Merkel and Sarkozy), the European Union risks not being able to respect its commitments to reduce its greenhouse gases that it has signed up to under the Kyoto protocol.”

The Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement reached in Japan in 1997, requires the EU to reduce its emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. Transport is the only sector in Europe which has accounted for a rise in greenhouse gas emissions in recent years – by 26 percent over 1990 levels. Cars alone make up 12 percent of the EU’s total emissions.

Greenpeace also objected to how France and Germany have substantially modified the Commission’s plans to penalise car makers who do not respect the legal limits. The EU executive had recommended that firms should be fined 20 euros (31 dollars) for every gram that exceeds the limit in 2012, with that penalty rising to 95 euros in 2015.

But Merkel and Sarkozy have advocated that leniency should be shown to those that breach the ceiling.

Some activists predict that the Franco-German amendments to the EU plan would result in a decade’s delay before cars with significantly lower emissions than those currently clogging Europe’s roads come on the market. They also complain that by refusing to clamp down on ‘gas-guzzlers’, the Union will remain highly reliant on imported oil.

“Europe’s two biggest car producing countries have done a deal to try to keep fuel efficient cars out of the hands of Europeans for the next decade or more,” said Aat Peterse from the European Federation for Transport and Environment.

“They want to keep Europe worryingly dependent on imported oil from the Middle East and Russia and do nothing about the region’s oil import bill, as of last Friday standing at 1 billion euros a day. Most importantly their shabby plan would make Europe’s climate targets much harder to reach for every member state. It is up to the other 25 countries in the EU to stand up for their own interests and kick this plan into the long grass.”

Sarkozy and Merkel’s discussions came ahead of France’s six-month stint as holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, which begins Jul. 1. France is hoping to make substantial progress in advancing the EU’s climate change strategy – including the car dossier – during that time.

Although France had supported the Commission’s proposals, Germany had argued against them. Unlike French car makers who specialise in small cars, German manufacturers of luxury vehicles say they would have struggled to meet the proposed limits.

Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush has said that it may be possible to clinch a new global agreement on climate change before he steps down as next year. Bush was speaking during an EU-U.S. summit in Slovenia.

The U.S. is the only major industrialised country to have refused to accept the Kyoto agreement, citing concerns about its economic impact. Talks aimed at drawing up a successor to Kyoto are scheduled to conclude in Copenhagen in late 2009.

Both presidential hopefuls – Barack Obama and John McCain – have promised to make climate change a bigger priority than Bush did. But Boyden Gray, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, warned recently that Europeans should not think that U.S. policy will change “magically” once there is a new occupant of the White House.