A "wedding cortege" of the most-polluting
German cars travelled along the Champs Elysée in Paris today, stopping
in various showrooms to distribute invitations to the marriage of French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel. The
cortege went also to the Elysée, the French presidential palace, and to
the French Environment Ministry, to deliver an official letter asking
President Sarkozy and his Environment Minister Borloo to not give away
the fight against climate change. Organised by Greenpeace, the cortege
parodies the forthcoming bilateral Franco-German so-called Blaesheim
meeting on 9 June.
To fight climate change, the European Union must reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions, especially in the transport sector. European car
manufacturers are fighting ferociously against a binding regulation, and
in this battle they are championed by Merkel. With this parody wedding,
Greenpeace is highlighting the danger that the Franco-German partnership
will result in very weak European regulations, benefiting a German car
industry that is both influential and dirty.
"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,
Greenpeace France climate campaigner. "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."
The transport sector is the only sector in the EU to have increased its
emissions, by around 26% since 1990. Private vehicles alone are
responsible for 12% of the total emissions of the EU. Despite a
voluntary commitment to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars to 140 g/km
by 2008, European car manufacturers only reached an average of 160 g/km
in 2006.
To meet the challenge of climate change, the EU must adopt a new
regulation by the end of this year that will limit CO2 emissions from
new vehicles to 120 g/km by 2012 and to 80 g/km by 2020. The regulation
must also include a burden-sharing among manufacturers based on the size
of the vehicles and not on weight, and must include a system of
penalties sufficiently strong to force manufacturers to respect the
regulation - 150 euros for each additional gram of CO2 above the limit
for each vehicle sold.
Up until the last few months, France had favoured severe penalties, a
size based criteria instead of weight and a 2020 target. But this is no
longer its position. Only three months away from taking up the rotating
EU presidency, what could have persuaded France to give up its initial
ambitions?
"Sarkozy and Merkel could sell out their countries' climate objectives
when they get together for the so-called Blaesheim meeting on 9 June"
Valette added. "Only months away from taking up the rotating EU
Presidency, France is branding itself as a strong leader in the fight
against climate change. But, with this dirty deal, only the car
manufacturers will be partying, while EU citizens and the planet will be
the ones paying the price for the industry's celebration."
Please join the 30 000 who have already signed the e-petition against this deal at www.greenpeace.org/dirty-deal
