EU carmakers ‘inflating’ emissions to skew carbon targets

Authorities are currently switching over from older emissions testing procedure known as NEDC to a new one called WLTP

FRANKFURT: European Union carmakers may be submitting “inflated” figures for their vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions to soften future targets for reducing the greenhouse gas, European Commission documents seen by AFP Wednesday show. Authorities are currently switching over from an older emissions testing procedure known as NEDC to a new one called WLTP. During the changeover, “emission values officially declared by manufacturers may be inflated,” Commission officials wrote to senior members of the European Parliament’s environment committee and EU Council president Austria. Declaring higher emissions values now “would cause an increase of the 2021 WLTP targets... the targets for 2025 and 2030 would also be weakened,” the officials explained. The new allegations differ in important details from the “dieselgate” scandal that has rocked the car industry since 2015. In that case, Volkswagen admitted to manipulating millions of cars to appear to emit less harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) in lab tests than they were in real on-road driving. Other manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler have since fallen under suspicion.  

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2018.

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