European Union approves law to cut CO2 emissions from trucks

European Union countries gave their final approval on Monday (13) to a law to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from trucks, which will require the majority of new heavy-duty vehicles sold in the EU from 2040 to be emission-free. .

The law will impose a 90% cut in CO2 emissions from new heavy-duty vehicles by 2040. This means that manufacturers will have to sell a large proportion of completely CO2-free trucks – including electric vehicles and those that run on hydrogen fuel – to offset remaining sales of new CO2-emitting vehicles in 2040.

Most trucks on Europe's roads currently use diesel, which produces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants linked to lung cancer and respiratory diseases. Heavy vehicles produce a quarter of road transport emissions in Europe.

Truck manufacturers will also have to reduce CO2 emissions from their fleets by 45% by 2030 – replacing an existing target of 30% – and 65% by 2035.

From 2030, 90% of new city buses sold in the EU will be zero-emission, increasing to 100% by 2035.

European car group ACEA described the EU policy as the most ambitious in the world and said the targets will only be achieved if governments match them with a rapid rollout of 50,000 public electric charging points suitable for trucks by 2030.

The EU policy on CO2 for trucks has now received approval from EU countries and the EU Parliament, meaning it can be transposed into law.

This is despite recent complaints from Germany and centre-right EU parliamentarians, who wanted the policy to allow more combustion engine trucks to be sold beyond 2040 if they run on CO2-neutral fuels.

In Monday's vote (13), only Italy, Poland and Slovakia opposed the policy, while the Czech Republic abstained, an EU official told Reuters.

To win Germany's support, EU countries last month added a preamble to the law that said the European Commission would consider developing rules in the future to count trucks running on CO2-neutral fuels toward the targets.