Svenja Schulze: "A milestone for climate action in road haulage"

Today the Council of the EU member states, with the support of Germany, agreed on an EU regulation limiting the CO₂ emissions of tractors and lorries for the first time. According to this regulation, the CO₂ emissions of heavy-duty vehicles above 16 tonnes have to be reduced by 15 percent by 2025 and by 30 percent by 2030. Agreement had already been reached in April on new fleet limits for cars and light commercial vehicles.

Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze commented: "With this important regulation, we now have binding CO₂ standards for lorries in Europe. These have been in place in the US, China and Japan for years. Lorries are responsible for almost one-quarter of all CO₂ emissions from transport, and this figure is rising. Now it is finally possible to halt the increase in climate-damaging emissions."

In the logistics sector, a lorry’s fuel consumption is considered an important criterion for economic efficiency. Despite this, the fuel consumption of new lorries barely decreased in the past 10 years. At the same time, the volume of road haulage increased significantly – and as a result, so did the total CO₂ emissions from transport. According to the new regulation, the average CO₂ emission per kilometre for new lorries now has to be cut in two stages: by 15 percent from 2025 and by 30 percent from 2030 compared with 2019.

Vehicle manufacturers that offer a large number of zero and low-emission vehicles can reduce their prescribed target value by up to three percent. This bonus is likely to promote electric and fuel cell vehicles in particular.

The regulation is also to be extended to cover small lorries, buses, lorry trailers and semi-trailers as soon as suitable procedures for calculating the CO₂ emissions of these vehicles are available. In 2022, the European Commission will review the regulation and make proposals for amendments and additions. The Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council setting CO₂ emission performance standards for new heavy-duty vehicles enters into force 20 days after publication in an official EU notification.