• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
‘LET’S SUE BIG OIL’: Legal Team Launches Class Action Campaign for B.C. Municipalities June 17, 2022
‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’, Colleague Says, After Brazil Confirms Murders of Bruno Pereira, Dom Phillips June 17, 2022
Infrastructure Gap a ‘Life and Death’ Matter as Northern Canada Warms June 17, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate News Network

Europe slow to act on diesel dangers

February 18, 2016
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Alex Kirby

Polluted Paris: The Eiffel Tower struggles to be seen through the urban haze.

Polluted Paris: The Eiffel Tower struggles to be seen through the urban haze.

 

Cars using diesel fuel cause more climate damage than petrol-driven vehicles, campaigners say, and are also a health risk.

LONDON, 18 February, 2016 – In a sharp reminder of the dangers posed by diesel fuel,  campaigners say Europe needs to act decisively to counter its dual dangers. Not only is it a serious health hazard, they argue, but it also worsens climate change.

The group, Green Budget Europe (GBE), says that after including the global warming caused by black carbon – or soot – from diesel engines, cars that use the fuel do more harm to the climate than petrol-driven vehicles.

Their conclusion, which contradicts industry claims, is contained in a briefing for members of the European Parliament by Eckard Helmers, professor of chemical and environmental analysis at Trier University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

According to Professor Helmers, diesel’s share of new car sales in Western Europe rose from 15% during the early 1990s to more than half in recent years, because of reduced taxes and lower air pollution standards for diesel fuel and diesel cars.

GBE says the constant improvement in petrol engines is one factor explaining why diesel cars now have a worse climate record than petrol cars. But it says it is black carbon that pushes the climate emissions from diesel cars significantly higher.

Flawed results

When black carbon is expressed in terms of CO2, the emissions of pre-2005 diesel cars, few of which have particulate filters, are 25 – 50% (40 – 80g) higher per kilometre than suggested by official estimates dating back to when the cars were sold.

Almost all post-2005 diesel cars are fitted with devices to cut particulates. But the briefing says testing in France shows the devices do not work properly on 75% of cars.

With diesel cars outselling petrol in Europe every year for the last decade, Professor Helmers says the continent’s refineries are now under strain, and grappling with a growing diesel/petrol imbalance. The tripling of diesel demand since the mid-1990s has led to increased diesel imports from Russia, adding security-of-supply concerns to the higher emissions of a longer supply chain.

GBE thinks Europe should learn from Japan’s adoption of different technology. It says:  “Progressing hybrids instead of diesel since the early 1990s, Japan now commands a substantial climate lead over Europe in producing low-CO2 cars for the mass market.”

“A continued pro-diesel bias in Europe . . . would be a strategic mistake, risking the long-term competitiveness of European car-making”

Japan’s CO2 emissions from new cars are now on average 16% lower than Europe’s – 108g per kilometre in Japan, 128g in Europe..

GBE says: “A continued pro-diesel bias in Europe, either through reduced taxes, weaker air pollution standards, or both, would be a strategic mistake, risking the long-term competitiveness of European car-making.”

France is preparing to increase taxation on diesel fuel in 2016, and GBE says it is now time for Germany to follow suit: “The longer Germany waits before reducing its 18 cent tax gap between diesel and petrol, the harder it will become for its car-makers to become more competitive in making mass-market hybrids and electric vehicles.”

Diesel vehicles also make a significant contribution to air pollution. A recently-published study of 368,000 Britons over 38 years found that the health effects of exposure to polluted air persist for many decades after exposure.

Paying for pollution

The World Health Organisation says outdoor air pollution in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012, 88% of them in low- and middle-income countries, and the greatest number in its Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions. 

Green Budget Europe argues for the use of environmental fiscal reform (EFR) in order to bring tax and spending into line with environmental goals.

Through green taxes, emissions trading, subsidy reform, the promotion of renewable energy and other measures, it aims at increasing the price of pollution and environmental damage and correcting market distortions.

It says this would “make prices tell the ecological truth”, and wants higher taxes on pollution to be balanced by reduced labour taxes. – Climate News Network



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

stux / Pixabay
Air & Marine

Big Seven European Airlines Lag on Reducing Sky-High Emissions: Report

June 13, 2022
71
Ars Electronica/flickr
Solar

Unique ‘Smartflower’ Microgrid to Power Saskatchewan High School

June 13, 2022
150
http://midwestenergynews.com/2013/10/24/as-pipeline-concerns-mount-a-renewed-focus-on-the-great-lakes-enbridge-mackinac-line-5/
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Line 5 Closure Brings Negligible Rise in Gas Prices, Enbridge Consultant Finds

June 10, 2022
203

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

The federal government's Cliff Street Power Plant is at the centre of Ottawa's plans to reduce natural gas demand. Photo: PWGSC

EXCLUSIVE: Ontario Regulator Refuses New Pipeline, Tells Enbridge to Plan for Lower Gas Demand

May 30, 2022
5.2k
Jason Woodhead/Flickr

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
341
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
219
Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Opinion: Ontario’s New ‘Carbon Tax’ Looks Like the One Doug Ford Fought

June 7, 2022
1.6k
eloialferez66/pixnio

Toronto’s New Backyard Homes Will Help Fight Sprawl

June 24, 2022
70
Greg Goebel/Wikimedia Commons

Canadian Pension Board Invests $141M in Chinese Coal Projects, Undercutting Federal Phaseout Policy

July 29, 2020
2.3k

Recent Posts

David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1
pxhere

Environmental Racism Bill Passes Second Reading in House of Commons

June 26, 2022
1
Graco/Facebook

Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use

June 26, 2022
2
stockvault

Animal Agriculture Could Reduce Future Pandemic Risk, UK Researchers Say

June 26, 2022
1
Gustavo Petro Urrego/flickr

Colombia’s President-Elect Has ‘Ambitious’ Plans to Halt Amazon Deforestation

June 26, 2022
1
Adam E. Moreira/wikimedia commons

Suspend Transit Fares, Not Gas Tax, Climate Advocates Urge Biden

June 26, 2022
1
Next Post
Padraic Ryan/Wikipedia

Quebec Enviros File Court Motion for Energy East Review

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}