Malta is one of 10 member states that have already managed to reach the EU’s new-car emissions targets for 2015.
According to a new study published by the EU’s Environment Agency (EEA), Malta’s average emissions from new cars registered in 2012 stood at 121.5 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre.
This means that the island is import-ing smaller and more environment friendly cars.
CO2 emissions from road transport increased by 21 per cent between 1990 and 2011 and the sector is responsible for 23 per cent of all CO2 emissions in the EU.
As part of the response to this problem, the EU has a short-term target for average new car emissions to be below 130 grams carbon dioxide per kilometre by 2015 and a long-term target of 95 gCO2/km by 2020. In 2012 average emissions were 132.2 gCO2/km.
“Malta has already managed to reach the short term target and this is a good sign that the country is trying to improve its record,” an EEA official told Times of Malta.
“Only three countries – Poland, Portugal and Denmark – managed to get better results than Malta last year,” the official said. The statistics, which do not take into consideration the number of second-hand cars imported – significant in Malta’s case – show that last year Malta registered 6,000 new cars, the same as in 2011.
According to the statistics, the average number of new cars imported in Malta since 2004 has remained relatively the same, except for 2005, when it reached 7,000, while in 2010 it dipped to just 4,000 new cars.
On an EU level, the EEA report shows that in 2012 nearly 12 million cars were sold. This number has declined since it peaked in 2007, when 15.5 million new vehicles were registered.
Last year, registration of new cars fell furthest in Greece (-41 per cent), Portugal (-38 per cent) and Cyprus (-25 per cent).
Diesel vehicles represent 55 per cent of the newly registered vehicle fleet.
Although electric cars have been increasing rapidly across the EU, their number is still almost negligible.
Annual pure electric vehicles sales increased 20-fold over the last three years, going from around 700 in 2010 to around 14,000 in 2012.
Most of these cars were registered in France (more than 5,500 vehicles in 2012) and Germany (nearly 3,000 vehicles).