Navigation path
- European Commission
- Climate Action
- Policies
- Transport
- Road transport
Page navigation
- Climate change in brief
- Climate and energy package
- Roadmap 2050
- European Climate Change Programme
- Greenhouse gas Monitoring & Reporting
- Emissions Trading System
- Effort Sharing Decision
- Low Carbon Technologies
- Transport
- Ozone Layer Protection
- Fluorinated Gases
- Forests and Agriculture
- Adaptation to climate change
- Climate finance
- Working with International Partners
Additional tools
Road transport contributes about one-fifth of the EU's total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. While emissions from other sectors are generally falling, those from road transport have continued to increase since 1990. Eager to tackle climate change, the European Commission has a comprehensive strategy designed to help the EU reach its long-established objective of limiting average CO2 emissions from new cars to 120 grams per km by 2012.
Commission strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans
The European Commission has a comprehensive strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans sold in the European Union, to ensure that the EU meets its greenhouse gas emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol and beyond.
This strategy, which was adopted in 2007, aims to tackle CO2 emissions from both the production and consumer sides and is designed to help the EU reach its long-established objective of limiting average CO2 emissions from new cars to 120 grams per km by 2012 - a reduction of around 25% from 2006 levels.
Most measures already implemented, others in the process of being implemented
In a progress report, adopted in November 2010, the European Commission concludes that most of the measures contained in the 2007 strategy have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented.
The goal of reducing new car emissions to 120 gCO2/km by 2012, as defined in the strategy, is however not likely to be achieved because some measures have been implemented late. Despite a low probability of achieving the 2012 target, the strategy, and the measures it includes, has played an important role in reducing CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicles.
To improve planning certainty for the automotive sector while ensuring that CO2 reductions from light-duty vehicles continue to take place, the Commission considers, based on a thorough impact assessment, to propose a target for passenger car emissions to be reached by 2025. Among other options, the Commission will assess the feasibility of the target suggested by the European Parliament of reaching 70 gCO2/km by 2025.