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On 4 March, MEPs from the TRAN and ENVI committees adopted their report on the Commission’s proposal aiming to establish a common European framework for calculating GHG emissions of transport operations in the freight and passenger transport sector, the so-called CountEmissions EU initiative.

MEPs chose to retain the main aspects of the Commission proposal, including the voluntary opt-in, the methodology set out by the ISO 140843 standard and the possibility to use secondary data for SMEs as well as data sources and default values from third-party providers. However, MEPs propose that the Commission presents a methodology of calculating life-cycle GHG emissions (including vehicle manufacturing, maintenance and end-of life) within two years after the entry into force of the Regulation. The report also proposes to mandate the use of primary data to companies with the exception of SMES also when they are subcontractors of larger companies.

CLECAT welcomes the adoption of the report but is concerned about several amendments which may potential negative consequences, as mentioned in a joint press release issued ahead of the vote together with ESC and EEA.  The well-to-wheel approach adopted by the ISO 14083 standard reflects the current business practices of companies calculating and reporting emissions stemming from transport. There is currently no robust methodology to include emissions other than stemming from the provision of transport services. Developing a robust methodological approach would take a certain time, which would delay even further the uptake of GHG calculation in transport. In addition, while we understand and strongly support the fact that primary data should be prioritised for calculating GHG emissions from transport services whenever available, their use should not be made mandatory, considering the difficulty for some stakeholders to generate or gather real-time data. On the other hand, we would be in favour of any EU or national incentives aimed at stimulating the use of primary data.

The Plenary of the European Parliament will vote on the report in April. Negotiations with the Council which adopted its general approach in December will start after the European elections in June.

Source: European Parliament