April 19, 2018
According to a study (click here) published by the European Environment Agency, new cars in Portugal had the lowest CO2 emissions with 105 grams per kilometre. Portugal is followed the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece, compared to the highest value in Estonia and Lithuania, with the UK also faring poorly, recording emissions almost 15 percent above those in Portugal.
The new study form the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) European Topic Centre on Air pollution and Climate change Mitigation assessed the impact of taxes and incentives on purchases of new cars.
Average CO2 emissions of new passenger cars in the EU has fallen steadily in recent years, from 170 g CO2/km in 2001 to 118 g CO2/km in 2016, with an annual reduction rate of 2 percent. A further 19.5 percent reduction in average CO2 emissions will be required to comply with the 2021 target of 95 g CO2/km (27 percent below the 2015 target).
There is substantial variation between countries, in terms of their average CO2 emissions and the rate of reduction seen over time. Portugal had the lowest average CO2 emissions of the EU-28 countries in 2016 of 105 g/km, followed by the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece, compared to the highest value of 134 g/km in Estonia, followed by Lithuania.
As regards EEA member countries, the average CO2 emissions of new cars was the lowest in Norway (93 g/km) whilst the highest average CO2 emissions were in Switzerland (134.0 g/km).
