27 January 2023

PUSH FOR TRANSITION TO ZERO-EMISSION HEAVY DUTY VEHICLES

The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg have published a joint non-paper calling for an ambitious revision of the emission standards for heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) which they consider to be much needed to contribute to a reduction of the emissions of road transport in line with the Paris Agreement, the European Climate Law and Member States targets under the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR). The four Member States highlight that this review is an opportunity to abate emissions in the transport sector, as they are currently not on a Paris Agreement aligned trajectory.

The paper notes that the Commission proposal should include the following 3 core elements 1) A 100% zero emission target for new HDVs in the EU, in line with the EU objective of climate neutrality by 2050 2) A strengthened 2030 target, building on the ambitions expressed by frontrunning OEMs and fleet owners 3) Application of the CO2 standards to more vehicle categories than covered under the current scope, indicating that the current CO2 reduction targets are only applicable to a small share of freight vehicles on the road.

At the same time, the non-paper stresses the importance of ensuring charging infrastructure deployment to be up to pace with the uptake of ZEVs, also mentioning the ongoing negotiations on the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) as an opportunity to align charging infrastructure targets with the increased ambitions for the HDV sector.

CLECAT welcomes the ambition shown by the four Member States in decarbonising the transport sector, as it is key for the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In its position paper, adopted in November 2022, CLECAT indicated its supports for more ambitious CO2 targets, as long as these are technologically and economically viable in the given timeframe. CLECAT also agrees on the importance to strengthen the HDV infrastructure targets in the AFIR proposal, which are currently not sufficient to ensure a dense network able to cover all trips for logistics service providers across Europe.

Source: Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the European Union