A draft European Parliament report by Maltese MEP Miriam Dalli is calling for an ambitious 50 per cent cut in vehicle emissions by 2030.
Dr Dalli was appointed in February to lead the Parliament’s negotiations on the EU’s car emission standards beyond 2020, a critical piece of legislation aimed at cutting emissions across all Member States.
The draft report sets an interim target of a 20 per cent reduction by 2025 and goes far further than the European Commission’s proposal of 15 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030.
It also proposes that one fifth of cars sold after 2025 should be electric or low-emission, rising to half the new vehicle fleet by 2030.
In an explanatory statement, Dr Dalli said the ambitious targets would “ensure that the EU is in line with its long-term climate commitments and delivers the benefits for our citizens and consumers alike”.
The targets, she said, would “help stimulate economic growth while reinforcing the competitiveness of the European industry”.
“Despite a presumed and temporary higher initial cost for purchasing vehicles, in the long-run, consumers, both first and second-hand vehicle owners, will benefit from a marked reduction in the cost of car ownership as they will pay much less for fuelling and maintaining their vehicles,” Dr Dalli said in the report.
“This is expected to leave more money available to consumers that they can use for purchasing other goods and services and, thus, giving a boost to real incomes, consumer expenditure and further increase GDP.”
Malta’s carbon dioxide emissions rose by an estimated 12.8 per cent in 2017 – the largest increase across the EU – according to recent Eurostat figures.
Traffic has long been the main driver of Malta’s poor performance on emissions, with a European Commission report last November finding that increased road congestion would likely cause the country to miss its binding 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets.
Carbon emissions from road transport in 2015 were 95.7 per cent above 1990 levels, according to the Commission. Brussels also noted that, despite government incentives for the use of electric cars, progress has so far been negligible, with the market share for alternative fuel cars peaking at just 0.33 per cent – 21 cars – in 2014.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced last year he would be starting the process of establishing a cut-off date for the sale of new diesel and petrol cars, which some other EU countries have already announced they will ban past 2040 or 2050.