The fall-out from the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal continues apace, and it’s now the European Commission coming over heavy criticism for their response to it.
According to an article in Business Reporter, a decision voted on by representatives from 28 EU countries will allow cars to produce far more pollution than is legally permitted.
It seems that as so many cars have been affected by the scandal, the EU countries have agreed to a proposal that will allow cars to produce more than double to legal limit of emissions. Furthermore, RDE (Real Driving Emissions) tests will only be fully in place by September 2017. Requirements will become more stringent from 2020.
A sad reality is that many cars currently on the roads, affected by the VW scandal and using devices that have skewed test results, are actually emitting more than 40 times the amount of nitrogen oxide pollutants than they should be. Client Earth, an environmental group, are quoted in the report as saying that the EU decision is a “shockingly cynical move,” and that they have “lower(ed) the bar” rather than truly clamping down on the problem. They go on to state that there is “no doubt (the) decision will cost lives.
The campaigning group hope that the European Parliament will overrule the decision. Time will tell on that particular issue, but we can’t help but wonder if there’s far more to unfold regarding this issue. Could it only be a matter of time before other manufacturers become implicated in emission cheating too? Let us know what you think in the comments.
IMAGE CREDIT: Wikipedia
Stringent emission controls in the EU are all very well, but don’t really help much in the global picture.In most developing countries, there are no emission regulations at all. On a trip to Venezuela last year, I could actually TASTE the petrol and diesel fumes, it was that bad! Ok, so there were much less old American V8 cars about than when I was there in 1992, but with millions of old polluting vehicles in these developing nations, I think our efforts are but a drop in the ocean…
Stringent emission controls in the EU are all very well, but don’t really help much in the global picture.In most developing countries, there are no emission regulations at all. On a trip to Venezuela last year, I could actually TASTE the petrol and diesel fumes, it was that bad! Ok, so there were much less old American V8 cars about than when I was there in 1992, but with millions of old polluting vehicles in these developing nations, I think our efforts are but a drop in the ocean…