The topic of CO2 emissions is a frequent visitor to the world’s news portals, and often in connection with one of the biggest polluters: cars. But huge leaps forward have been taken as regards cutting CO2 emissions from cars, with a raft of technologies and innovations. One country that has led those innovations is Germany.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced criticism from green campaigners lately, as she tries to derail an EU-wide agreement on lowering emissions – aiming for an average of 95 grams per kilometre across the EU fleet.
Why is she and her party so keen to put a spanner in the works? Some point to the huge power and influence of the German car industry, which has for a long time been able to pull strings in the Bundestag.
One of the commonly used ‘sticks’, is the threat that drastically-low CO2 targets would damage Germany’s luxury car market, which produces hundreds of thousands of top end, petrol guzzling cars for people across Europe and beyond. The ultimate penalty, say car industry lobbyists, will be job losses. And Merkel needs to maintain her pro-jobs stance, as the next German election approaches rapidly.
Critics argue that it is time for Germany’s auto giants to start building eco-friendly luxury cars. This is easier said than done: BMW and Mercedes don’t want to start building high-end cars that force their owners to call their breakdown insurer on every second trip. Creating truly green luxury cars takes a lot of time, if no performance is to be lost.
Let’s just hope they’ve been beavering away and have something to show the world pretty soon.
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