European Union countries have given their final approval to a groundbreaking law aimed at significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions from trucks. The law mandates that most new heavy-duty vehicles sold in the EU from 2040 onwards must be emissions-free.
Under the new law, there will be a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions from new heavy-duty vehicles by 2040. This means manufacturers will need to sell a substantial portion of fully CO2-free trucks, such as electric vehicles and those powered by hydrogen fuel, to offset any remaining sales of new CO2-emitting vehicles in 2040.
Currently, the majority of trucks on Europe’s roads run on diesel, which produces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants associated with lung cancer and respiratory diseases. Heavy-duty vehicles account for a quarter of Europe’s road transport emissions.
Truck manufacturers will also be required to reduce the CO2 emissions of their fleets by 45% by 2030, replacing the existing target of 30%, and by 65% by 2035.
In addition to the truck regulations, from 2030, 90% of new urban buses sold in the EU must be emissions-free, increasing to 100% by 2035.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has hailed the EU policy as the world’s most ambitious. However, ACEA has cautioned that the targets will only be achievable if governments facilitate a rapid rollout of 50,000 truck-suitable public electric charging points by 2030.
Despite some dissent, the EU’s truck CO2 policy has received approval from EU countries and the EU Parliament, clearing the way for it to become law. Germany and center-right EU lawmakers had voiced concerns and sought provisions that would allow more combustion engine trucks running on CO2-neutral fuels to be sold beyond 2040. However, these proposals were not included in the final law.
In the vote, only Italy, Poland, and Slovakia opposed the policy, while the Czech Republic abstained. To secure Germany’s support, EU countries added a preamble to the law indicating that the European Commission would consider developing rules in the future to count trucks running on CO2-neutral fuels towards the targets.
