ICCT WHITE PAPER ON CO2 STANDARDS FOR TRUCKS
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) published on 30 March a white paper on the required CO2 standards for heavy-duty vehicles to meet the EU climate targets set in the European Climate Law. The study notes that the current HDV CO2 standards require most new trucks to reduce their emissions by 15% in 2025, and 30% in 2030. However, growing levels of activity in the HDV sector offset the CO2 benefits from the standards, with emissions projected to grow by 8% by 2050 under the current adopted policies.
The authors note that the deployment objectives proposed by the European Commission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy (80’000 zero-emission lorries in 2030, nearly 100% sales of ZE trucks by 2050) do not match the decarbonisation pathway required by the European Climate Law (-55% emission by 2030, -100% in 2050). While main truck manufacturers have committed to 100% sales of zero-emission trucks by 2040, the study proposes to solve the discrepancy between their intermediary targets through tightened CO2 standards to match the decarbonisation objective.
To achieve Europe’s climate goals, the ICCT recommends the European Commission to strengthen the HDV CO2 standard to achieve a CO2 reduction target of at least 60% in 2030, and at least 90% in 2035, and to phase-out new combustion-powered trucks and buses by no later than 2040. In addition, the standards should be extended to cover all sales of HDVs where feasible.