Following news this week that the European Council postponed a vote on agreed emission standards for trucks (originally scheduled for Wednesday 7th February, now due to take place Friday 9th February), Sandra Roling, our Director of Transport, has said:
“It’s incredibly frustrating that even at this late stage, Germany cannot guarantee its support for already agreed CO2 standards for trucks. While touting “technological openness” as grounds for caution, in effect what politicians are doing is leaving open the possibility that far more heavily polluting combustion engines are still on the EU’s roads – causing harm to the environment, people’s health and business confidence.
“Don't allow the combustion engine to stay on life support via the back door. This would serve only to divert investment from genuine zero emission technologies like battery electric trucks. Businesses need legislative certainty to plan and invest, and flipflopping at this late stage undermines this while also risking the EU’s ability to meet its agreed 2050 climate goals.”