EU: no CO2 improvement in cars in 2017

There is a new report from the EEA (European Environmental Agency) which is breathtaking regarding elementary  logic. After that Brussels (and many enviro-groups) launched an unprecedented Diesel bashing, sales of Diesel cars are down in the EU (a decrease up to 19% in Greece and 17% in Luxembourg). Everybody should know that the fuel efficiency of a Diesel engine is much better that that of a gasoline engine of same power (a Diesel car makes about 3.4 km/l more than the equivalent petrol car, all fulfilling the Euro 6 norm, see here); the report says that as an average the CO2 emissions of Diesel cars is 117.9 gCO2/km, and those of petrol cars 121.6 gCO2/km.

So no wonder that EU wide car CO2 emissions are not “improving”: actually they rise by a rather minuscule 0.4 g/CO2/km. No wonder also that on average CO2 emissions are in a general rule lower in flat countries like Denmark (107.1) and the Netherlands (108.3) compared to hilly/mountaneous Austria (120.7) and Germany (127.1). Using a unique qualifier independent of geography/topography seems to be particularly silly (see next figure from the report, table added by me):

Clearly all the least developed Eastern countries have the highest emissions, probably due to topography and older car fleets. The extremely low value for Greece could well be a statistical fluke, not uncommon in many statistics from that country (even if Greeks seem to favor lighter cars).

Brussels has mandated a target of 95 gCO2/km for 2021 (i.e. in 3 years). A healthy dose of  skepticism seems adequate; but be sure that EV (electrical vehicles) will be counted as zero-emitters (what clearly they are not) to beautify the statistics!