A new climate ranking shows that EU governments' plans to cut pollution from transport, Europe's biggest emitter, will fail to meet their own 2030 emissions targets. Only the top 3, the Netherlands, the UK and Spain, scored above 50% in the ranking of draft national energy and climate plans compiled by Transport & Environment (T&E). Europe's largest economy, Germany, is 15th, setting itself up to pay billions of euro to other countries for missing the EU's 2030 emissions goals. All countries need to implement far more effective policies to reduce transport emissions than have been proposed to date.
The Netherlands has pledged that no fossil fuel cars will be sold there by 2030 and to reduce overall transport emissions by 29% compared to 2005 levels. However, its No 1 ranking is contingent on a draft national climate agreement which the government has already said it will weaken. The UK and Spain have similar plans to ban fossil fuel cars by 2040, far too late to decarbonise the vehicle fleet by 2050. Britain also leaves the door open for hybrids, and both the UK and Spanish pledges are non-binding.
Carlos Calvo Ambel, trends and analysis director at T&E, said: “Right now most EU governments' transport climate plans will see them miss the EU's binding 2030 emissions targets. That means they could be taken to court and fined, or be forced to pay for emission reductions in other EU countries.”
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