Germany dismayed at EU rule on CO2 emissions

Dec 19, 2007, 12:55 GMT

Berlin - Germany voiced dismay at new C02 emissions limits backed by the European Union (EU) Commission Wednesday.

Thomas Steg, deputy government spokesman, said the proposal to reduce the average amount of carbon dioxide emitted by new passenger cars to 120 grams per kilometre by 2012 was 'unfair.'

He said it contained a 'bias' against German manufacturers.

'It handicaps innovation and endangers jobs,' he told reporters in Berlin.

Germany makers of bigger, more powerful cars, which necessarily use more fuel and have more emissions, have opposed the limit. The current average is about 160 grams per kilometre for a new car.

Germany argues the limit favours nations that predominantly make lighter cars with smaller engines.

However Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, chief of automotive consultancy CAR, said earlier that the important thing was that the industry had clear guidelines and an end to uncertainty about standards and tax treatment of car emissions.

'The politicians have to move faster so that the car manufacturers can react,' he told ZDF breakfast television. He said Brussels had told the industry a year ago it favoured a limit of 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre, yet had never imposed this.