Members of the European Parliament last week voted in favour of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.
Members of the European Parliament’s environment and industry committees voted in a joint session to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030.
It is part of a package of measures that also included a target to get 30 per cent of Europe’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.
Brussels currently has a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, as part of an overall goal of reducing emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
The MEPs also approved plans to set a separate target for the reduction of energy use from buildings. This could be a cut of more than 60 per cent with final approval likely to take place in early February.
Also last week the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Germany on January 23, 2014 for its failure to stop Daimler from using an air conditioning coolant that has been banned in new cars since January 1, 2013.
The ‘letter of formal notice' is the first step in a process of fining member states for infringing European Union law, and follows an extensive investigation by the Commission.
Germany has defended Daimler's claim that the new, approved coolant is dangerous and flammable.
However, the Commission has found no evidence to support Germany's position that the new coolant is dangerous enough to justify a violation of the EU rule. Germany has two months to respond to the Commission's letter.
Meanwhile France banned the importation of new Daimler cars using the banned coolant. However a French court later suspended this French ban while it decides on an appeal by Daimler.
The old coolant, R134a, has been banned because it is a powerful global warming gas 1,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Daimler announced in September 2012, just a few months before the ban was set to take effect, that the new coolant HFO-1234yf, made by Honeywell, caught fire in crash tests. No other carmaker has reported this problem.
Daimler announced earlier this month that it will start manufacturing cars that can use CO2 as an air conditioning coolant. This would be legal under EU but Honeywell doesn't believe C02 is an effective alternative.
Honeywell said in a statement that Daimler's announcement was “yet another sleight of hand aimed at redirecting public attention from their non-compliance with the EU Mobile Air Conditioning Directive”.
The company went on to say that the CO2 method “has been shown over the past two decades of industry investigation to be costly and unviable.”