Average CO₂ emissions from new cars increase despite alternative drives - dena

Low-emission vehicles with electric and natural gas drives reached a record share of 5.3 percent of all newly registered cars in Germany in 2018, but the average CO₂ emissions of new cars continued to rise, the German Energy Agency (dena) says in its new monitoring report on alternative drives. That’s mainly because Germans registered more SUVs and fewer compact cars. “Emissions of newly registered cars in Germany continue to be significantly above the European average,” dena says in a press release.

By 2030, Germany aims to cut transport emissions by at least 40 percent, compared to 1990 levels. But so far, they remain stubbornly high. To help reach this goal, the federal government plans to introduce a Climate Action Law in 2019 that includes a programme of measures to lower transport emissions. An expert commission is tasked with drawing up a first set of proposals, but has so far failed to agree on sufficient measures to reach the country’s climate targets. “The [Climate Action] Law will show how serious the government is about climate-friendly mobility,” dena head Andreas Kuhlmann said.