The European Parliament has approved stricter CO2 emission reduction objectives for new trucks and has voted in favour of a 35% CO2 emissions reduction by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, much higher than the European Commission's original proposal of 30%. The European Parliament also supports an intermediate target of 20% by 2025. However, the vote still requires approval from the Council of the European Union to be passed into law.
European truck manufacturers will have to ensure that low and zero-emission vehicles (namely vehicles emitting at least 50% fewer emissions than the average) account for a 5% market share of the sales of new ones by 2025, and 20% by 2030.
The transportation sector currently produces a quarter of the EU carbon emissions and is the only area in which they are still growing, unlike the recent trends in the agriculture and power sectors. Besides, trucks account for approximately 5% of the vehicle park on EU roads but generate about 27% of road transport CO2 emissions and almost 5% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, which means they will be a key target of the sector's carbon reduction efforts. They have increased significantly since 1990 and in the absence of new policies, these emissions are projected to increase even further.