New EU rules that allow car firms to keep their emissions control systems secret from the public risk another dieselgate and should be made illegal, say environmental lawyers

New EU rules that allow car manufacturers to keep pollution control systems secret from the public should be declared illegal, according to environmental lawyers.

The systems can legally cut emissions controls under certain conditions on the road, meaning more pollution is produced. But keeping these strategies secret risks another “dieselgate” scandal, according to ClientEarth lawyers, who announced on Monday that they are seeking to challenge the regulation in the European Union’s court of justice.

In the dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen were caught cheating emissions rules by using software to hoodwink lab-based tests. New stricter tests came into force in September in the EU, including an on-the-road component. However, manufacturers say the emissions controls must still be ramped down at certain temperatures to protect engines.

Car makers must declare such strategies to national regulators but they claim that making them public would breach their commercial confidentiality. ClientEarth disagrees, arguing that such secrecy violates EU law.

“Dieselgate uncovered the huge lack of political will to hold car manufacturers to account for dangerous and illegal emissions,” said ClientEarth lawyer Anaïs Berthier. “To allow industry to continue keeping information on its emissions secret now sounds like a bad joke.”

“This information must be public, so individuals and NGOs can monitor whether car manufacturers are complying with vehicle emissions rules and if national authorities are keeping the industry on the straight and narrow,” she said.

Until recently, virtually all diesel cars emitted far more nitrogen dioxide on the road than in lab tests, resulting in higher levels of pollution across the world. In the UK, where 23,500 people are estimated to die early due to NO2 pollution each year, ClientEarth has twice defeated the government in the courts over the adequacy of ministers’ air pollution plans and the most recent plan was declared “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors.

ClientEarth lawyers argue that the confidentiality provision of EU Regulation (2017/1154) should be annulled by the EU court of justice. They believe the confidentiality rules violate EU laws governing access to environmental information and the international Aarhus Convention, which is designed to ensure public access to environmental information.

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A spokesman for the European commission said: “The commission has already taken robust action to limit the continuous exposure to harmful air pollution and to ensure that citizens are well informed.”

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which represents the car industry in the UK, said: “The UK automotive industry is investing billions of pounds in new technology to reduce emissions and pass the toughest emission testing regime in the world. Manufacturers must, however, guard all their intellectual property, including information on the emission control systems provided to [national] Type Approval Authorities, as this will be commercially sensitive.”

However, ClientEarth lawyer Ugo Taddei said national authorities had failed to protect the public in the past: “To avoid a new dieselgate, tackle the widespread emission tampering practices and put an end to their detrimental and unacceptable health impacts across Europe, we need transparency, not tests carried out by discredited authorities and reckless manufacturers behind closed doors.”