Video viEUws.eu: EU Briefing on Environment: Car emission, Aviation, ILUC, Heating & Cooling, BPA and Carbon Market Reform
The big dossier of the month is the VW scandal. On 3rd February, MEPs decided, after a very tight vote, not to veto a new set of rules proposed by the Commission. Diesel cars won the right to still emit twice as much NOx as EU law allows. However, the Commission’s proposal on an increase in EU oversight for car approvals and independent emission testing methods was well received. On 29th January, the Commission unveiled the first-ever European Aviation Environmental Report — key findings suggest, inter alia, that the sector is unlikely to meet its 2020 target to produce two million tonnes of sustainable biofuels for civil aviation. In other news, the Indirect Land-Use Change (ILUC) report is far from being published, experts say; whilst a study, part of the Heating and Cooling strategy, suggested that burning wood may prove less carbon-neutral than expected. Additionally, the Commission is set to propose a limit on the use of endocrine disruptor bisphenol A and to re-examine the only limitation for plastic food containers known to date. And finally the ITRE Committee failed to win exclusive competence on the EU Carbon Market Reform dossier. Sonja van Renssen, leading environment journalist, has the story.