"GREEN" NEWS * EU - Panel Eases Proposal on Truck Urban Air Pollution

A European Parliament committee loosened a proposed reduction in urban air pollution by truckmakers including Daimler AG and Volvo AB, scaling back a push to prevent deaths from lung illnesses

Strasbourg,France -Bloomberg, by Jonathan Stearns -July 15, 2008: -- ... The European Union assembly's environment committee said the EU limit on truck and bus emissions of nitrogen oxides should be 75 percent lower in 2013. The European Commission, the 27-nation EU's regulatory arm, in December proposed an 80 percent reduction... The committee said the deeper cut requires technologies that would lead to higher fuel consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse blamed for climate change... This amendment provides a win-win solution on both air pollutants and greenhouse gases by delivering a better trade-off between nitrogen-oxide and carbon-dioxide emissions,'' Anja Weisgerber, a German member of the Christian Democrats said in a statement accompanying the change approved today in Brussels. The committee backed a planned cut in the EU limit for another urban air pollutant, particulate matter, by 67 percent in the same period... Tighter vehicle-emission standards are part of a European campaign to reduce early deaths from air pollution by 40 percent to 230,000 a year by 2020 compared with 2000. The effort aims to bring health benefits of at least 42 billion euros ($67.2 billion) a year by the target date through less sickness and fewer deaths... (Picture from Wikipedia: "European Parlament")