Anger over intended 37.5% cut for new cars but environmental groups say it is not enough

An EU agreement to cut emissions from cars by over a third by 2030 has faced opposition from Europe’s car industry for being “unrealistic”, as well as criticism from environmental groups for being insufficient to achieve climate change targets.

EU countries will aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 37.5% by 2030 compared with 2021, while emissions from new vans will have to be 31% lower. There was also an interim target of a 15% cut for cars and vans by 2025.

Europe’s car industry reacted with fury, saying the commitment was driven purely by political motives and “totally unrealistic”.

Erik Jonnaert, the secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which represents companies such as Renault and BMW, said the targets “will be extremely demanding on Europe’s auto industry”, with a “seismic impact” on jobs.

The agreement on Monday night, which aims to spur the move towards electric vehicles and other alternatives to diesel and petrol, was described by European policymakers as a compromise between environmental concerns and representatives of countries with large car industries that had pushed for a much smaller cut, including Germany.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European commission’s vice-president for energy union, described the move as “another credible step in the implementation of the Paris agreement but also another decisive step in support of the long-term competitiveness of European industry”.

Europe is aiming for the transport industry to be climate neutral in the second half of the century, while countries including France and the UK have announced plans to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040. Carbon emissions from the EU’s transport sector increased by 28.3% between 1990 and 2016, according to the European Environment Agency.

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However, the take-up of electric vehicles in Europe has been relatively slow, with political pressure to keep the cost of motoring low spilling into widespread protests in France. Electrically chargeable vehicles made up 1.5% of all cars sold in the EU last year, according to ACEA.

Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based thinktank, said the reduction in emissions would not be enough to limit climate change. Under the Paris agreement countries including the EU member states have committed to limit global warming to well below 2C (35.6F) and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C.

Greg Archer, T&E’s clean vehicles director, said: “Europe is shifting up a gear in the race to produce zero-emission cars. The new law means by 2030 around a third of new cars will be electric- or hydrogen-powered. That’s progress but it’s not fast enough to hit our climate goals.”