Air pollution standard backed by MEPs is ‘worse than useless’

(Transport and Environment, 9 Nov 2023) EU Parliament votes for watered down emissions standard that will be used to greenwash dirty cars.

EU lawmakers should rename a draft vehicle emissions law as ‘Euro 6 F’ to avoid the wholesale greenwashing of dirty cars, green group Transport & Environment (T&E) has said. Today the EU Parliament backed a so-called ‘Euro 7’ standard that fails to significantly increase air pollution protections beyond its Euro 6 predecessor. It would maintain the same nitrous oxide (NOx) limit for petrol cars as Euro 6 and barely improve testing which is crucial to ensure that limits are actually met.

Carmakers typically use the ‘Euro’ air pollution standard to market their vehicles to consumers as ‘clean’, while regulators often rely on the standards to decide which cars can freely access low-emission zones and pay lower rates of vehicle tax.

Anna Krajinska, vehicle emissions and air quality manager at T&E, said: “The Euro 7 passed today is worse than useless. Car companies will use it to greenwash cars that are hardly any cleaner than today. The last pollution standard that engines will have to meet is a dead letter. Lawmakers should have the decency to rename it Euro 6F or withdraw it.”

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Transport and Environment, 9 Nov 2023: Air pollution standard backed by MEPs is ‘worse than useless’