European Parliament’s position on CO2 standards for trucks will help transport operators move to zero-emission trucking

European Parliament’s position on CO2 standards for trucks will help transport operators move to zero-emission trucking

European Clean Trucking Alliance — 2023-11-21

News from Brussels

Today’s vote of the European Parliament on the new CO2 standards for heavy-duty vehicles gives a clear direction to all players involved in decarbonising the road freight sector. The position of the European Parliament includes notably CO2 reduction targets of -45% by 2030, -65% by 2035 and -90% by 2040 as well as the extension of the scope of the regulation to other categories of vehicles, such as vocational vehicles.

Kristin Kahl, ECTA spokesperson and representative of the logistics company Contargo, says: “Ambitious CO2 standards are an effective tool to set the pace for the transition to zero-emission trucks as well as provide much needed certainty to companies operating in the freight and logistics sector to invest supported by sufficient infrastructure.”

A quarter of the EU’s road emission is caused by trucks in 2020, making up a total of 6% of the EU’s emissions. In order to reach the EU’s climate neutrality objective in 2050, the overwhelming majority of the emissions reduction will come from the sales of zero-emission vehicles.

Kristin Kahl added: “The potential of zero-emission trucks to decarbonise the road haulage sector is huge and offers economic and technological opportunities. The higher the ambition in the short and medium term, the more zero-emission vehicles are produced and the quicker they become more affordable for all hauliers across Europe.”

Working on effectively decarbonising the road freight sector cannot wait any longer. It is now essential that negotiations between co-legislators start swiftly to agree a final, ambitious regulation, sending the right signals for companies active in logistics to shift quickly to zero-emission trucks.