EU countries in favour of cutting trucks' CO2 emissions

BRUSSELS

On Monday, European Union countries approved passing a law that would slash carbon dioxide emissions from trucks. This move will nudge most new heavy-duty vehicles in the European Union to be emission-free from 2040 onwards.

The law will enforce a 90% cut in CO2 emissions from new heavy-duty vehicles by 2040. This implies that manufacturers will have to sell a large share of fully CO2-free trucks to offset any remaining sales of CO2-emitting vehicles in 2040. These CO2-free trucks will include electric vehicles and vehicles running on Hydrogen fuel.

Currently, most trucks on Europe’s roads are running on diesel, which produces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants that have been proven to be associated with lung cancer and respiratory diseases. It’s crucial to note that heavy-duty vehicles produce a quarter of Europe’s road transport emissions. 

By 2030, truck manufacturers will have to reduce the CO2 emissions of their fleets by 45%, replacing the initial 30% target and 65% by 2035. Furthermore, 90% of new urban buses sold in the EU will be required to have zero emissions, followed by an increase to 100% in 2035.

European autos group ACEA has described the EU policy as one of the world's most ambitious targets and said they will only be realised if governments match them with a robust roll-out of 50,000 truck-suitable public electric charging points by no later than 2030.

The EU’s truck CO2 policy has already received approval from European Union countries and the EU Parliament, implying that it can now be passed into law.

This law has materialised despite recent complaints from Germany and centre-right EU lawmakers, who had wanted the policy to allow more combustion engines to be sold beyond 2040 if they ran on CO2-neutral fuels.

According to media reports, only Italy, Poland and Slovakia were against the policy during Monday's vote while the Czech Republic abstained.

To win Germany’s support, EU countries added a preamble to the law last month which stated that the European Commission would consider developing rules in future to keep a count of trucks running on CO2-neutral fuels towards achieving the targets.