By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Apr 18 2008 (IPS)

A favourite cliché of commentators on European Union affairs is to describe France and Germany as the bloc’s engine. The cliché has assumed a more literal meaning than usual lately as the two titans have concentrated on finding a solution to a vexed proposal for reducing the contribution to climate change made by the private car.

Under a blueprint put forward last year by the European Commission, the EU’s executive, the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) discharged from an average car should be no greater than 120 grams per kilometre by 2012. CO2 is the main gas blamed by scientists for triggering global warming.

France has been favourably disposed to the Commission’s target. Because its industry concentrates on smaller cars than the German one, the task of reducing emissions would not be too exacting. Some models of Peugeot Citreon, for example, emit 142 g/km.

The Berlin government, on the other hand, has lead opposition to the plan, citing fears that it would be too onerous for German makers of large luxury cars such as BMW or Volkswagen. Heavier and less fuel efficient than most French vehicles, some models of Porsche emit 282 g/km.

Earlier this year the two countries formed a working group to assess how the differences between them can be overcome. No concrete results have yet emerged from their discussions but efforts to broker a compromise are expected to intensify in the next few months.

The dossier is expected to feature prominently on the agenda of a meeting scheduled for June between Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President. This event is known as a Blaesheim meeting, after a decision taken at a 2001 summit in Alsace (the French region bordering Germany) that the two countries should consult regularly at the highest level.

But Green activists are perturbed by indications that the Commission’s proposal could be diluted. “Of course we’re not happy with this,” Aat Peterse from the European Federation for Transport and Environment told IPS.

Volkswagen and BMW have demonstrated that they are capable of meeting the reduction targets by designing efficient versions of their cars, he said. “If the efficient versions comprised the majority of cars sold, we would already be there, we would already achieve the target for 2012.”

He added that the dossier is the “first real test of will” for the pledge made by EU leaders at a 2007 summit to dramatically cut their CO2 emissions. Perhaps ironically, that summit was chaired by Merkel, who warned that decisive action against climate change is necessary to avert a major human catastrophe. “It is fair to say that European politicians are having trouble in asserting a leadership role in practical circumstances,” Peterse said.

Transport is the only sector in Europe which has accounted for a rise in greenhouse gas emissions – by 26 percent over 1990 levels. Cars alone make up 12 percent of the EU’s total emissions.

Sigrid de Vries, a spokeswoman for the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (known by its French acronym ACEA), said that it would “very much be impossible” for most car makers to meet a binding target for 2012.

The cycle of bringing a car from its design to its manufacture normally takes about seven years, she added. “This means that 60 percent of the cars that will be sold in 2012 are already in production today. If you introduce significant changes halfway in the life cycle, it is very costly. And there isn’t a way of getting these costs back.”

Greenpeace fears that a “dirty deal” will emerge from the Merkel-Sarkozy discussions, and this could have repercussions for France’s six-month tenure of the EU’s rotating presidency, which begins in July.

“If the French president and the government forsake any climate solutions in response to a German chancellor obsessed by the financial interests of her country’s car industry, the whole credibility of the French presidency of the EU would be questionable,” said Anne Valette, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace. “Being so lax with the most-polluting sector totally contradicts Sarkozy’s repeated stance – that not doing the maximum to address climate change is irresponsible and also a crime.”

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