Environmental campaigners are bracing to take on big business over whether Europe should follow California’s lead and include road transport in the EU carbon market.
Bringing transport – Europe’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the power sector – into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) could bring down the costs the car industry faces in meeting existing regulation as well as tackling the oversupply on the carbon market.
Environmental campaigners, however, say such a move would undermine more-effective policies.
The arguments are likely to flare later this year when the European Commission, the EU executive, is expected to make a policy statement on a new 2025 standard for CO2 emissions from cars and EU leaders set a 2030 goal for overall emission reductions.