UK government lobbying to weaken EU car emissions targets

The government has been accused of lobbying to weaken new European laws that will force car manufacturers to build cleaner vehicles.

A briefing document to MEPs from the Department for Transport (DfT) seen by The Guardian urges them to support three proposed amendments to the European Commission's proposal to limit emissions from cars to 120g of CO2 for every kilometre travelled by 2012.

The corporate lobby in Germany, the UK and France had already pressured the EU's environment committee to push back the deadline to 2015 and to cut by half penalties of €95 (£75) for every gram per kilometre that a car exceeds the cap.

But in a surprise vote last month the committee rejected the proposals, sticking to the tougher targets originally proposed by the Commission.

However, with the proposals now moving into a parliamentary stage of debate, it appears that lobbying has been renewed.

The amendments that the DfT hope MEPs will push through include a three year delay to the deadline and a measure to allow broader "eco-innovations", such as improvements in tyre designs, which are not part of the formal emissions tests, to count towards the target.

Environmental group Greenpeace expressed concern that if the MEPs from the UK, France and Germany all voted for the amendments then the legislation would be likely to be watered down.

The DfT said the proposed changes would give car manufacturers more time to adapt to making low-emission models without having a significant effect on total emissions.