In a vote held on October 3rd, 2018, the European Parliament’s plenary voted to uphold the recommendations voted on by its Environment Commission on the 10th of September this year, setting a target to reduce CO2 emissions in passenger cars by 20% by 2025 and 40% by 2030. In addition, the Parliament will develop an official test to measure CO2 emissions which will be put into practice by 2023. Furthermore, the Parliament also voted to approve a bonus and penalty scheme for low and zero-emissions cars, a crucial measure in incentivizing the spread of these vehicles in advance of the emissions targets.
These measures must now be approved by EU Member States who will then enforce the new limits in their borders. These new targets lend further support to the targets set by Member States, such as Finland, which has already introduced targets to reduce transport emissions by 50% by 2030, over 2005 levels.
