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Press Release
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Press Release
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Big talk, big emissions: Barroso slammed for climate hypocrisy as EU Commission launches global warming campaign
Click on the images for high resolution. Ironically, President Barroso today launched a
European campaign to raise the awareness of EU citizens about their
contribution to global warming. But Barroso himself drives a Volkswagen
Touareg. This fuel-heavy 4x4 car has carbon dioxide emissions of
at least 265g/km, over twice the EU's own original objective for
new cars. [2]
Friends of the Earth Europe also calls on Mr Barroso
to get tough on binding emissions standards for cars, to replace
the current voluntary target that car makers are failing to meet.
The target originally proposed by the European Commission was a
maximum of 120g CO2/km for an average car, by 2010. A study prepared
for the European Jan Kowalzig said:
CONTACTJan Kowalzig, Climate Campaigner at Friends of
the Earth Europe: +32 496 384696 NOTES[1] NGO activists, from Friends of the Earth Europe, the Belgian action group 4x4info and the French group Réseau Action Climat France, offered the award of shame to Barroso outside the Berlaymont today. Campaigners brandished posters depicting Barroso with his Touareg, bearing the slogan "Big talk, big emissions". Click on the poster for large size Click on the photos for high-resolution. [2] Back in 1996 the European Commission proposed emission standards for cars of 120g CO2/km, to be achieved by 2010. Car makers rejected this target, and finally a voluntary target of 140g CO2/km by 2008/2009 was agreed. Currently, emission levels are at about 160g CO2/km. At the current rate of improvement, car makers will not meet their own voluntary target. Also, although the efficiency of cars has improved, their overall emissions have increased by more than 20% since 1990, as sensational growth rates of transport demand has outpaced the efficiency gains. [3] The report estimates the costs to be at most
577 EUR per car, but also notes that this is likely to be an exaggeration
of the costs by the car makers, similar to the cost over-estimation
on catalytic converters in the late 1980s. See: Institute for European
Environmental Policy, IEEP/TNO/CAIR 2005 - "Service contract
to carry out economic analysis and business impact assessment of
CO2 emissions reduction measures in the automotive sector";
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