Cars with internal combustion engines do not pollute the environment much less than before, and the drop in CO2 emissions in the car sector is mainly due to the explosion of electric cars, according to a report published on Wednesday by the European Court of Auditors and quoted by AFP.

The court assessed the effectiveness of the regulation of CO2 emissions from cars, which set European-wide emission targets for new vehicles from 2010 and specific emission targets for manufacturers from 2012.

According to the Accounting Chamber, CO2 emissions from new cars “started to decrease significantly from 2020, 11 years after the first regulation came into force.”

Emissions are measured in laboratories, not on the road

The authors of the report note that “since real emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles have not decreased, this decrease is mainly due to a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles.”

Between 2009 and 2019, average real-world emissions of new vehicles did not fall, “mainly because manufacturers focused on reducing emissions measured in laboratories rather than on the road.” On-road emissions depend on driver behavior, traffic and air conditioning use.

In 2017, a new cycle of laboratory tests, which better reflects real driving conditions, became mandatory for new homologated vehicles.

“This change made it possible to eliminate several gaps that arose in the previous cycle of tests and to reduce the gap between emissions measured in the laboratory and emissions observed on the road,” – analyzes the Accounting Chamber.

Emissions from the transport sector make up 23% of the total volume

The EU’s 2030 CO2 reduction targets and climate ambitions are not “sufficiently coherent”, concludes the Court.

“A key challenge to achieving the 2030 emission reduction targets and beyond will be to ensure that private consumers sufficiently switch to zero-emission vehicles. It is especially important that electric vehicles are affordable from a financial point of view, that sufficient recharging infrastructure is created, and that there is a guaranteed supply of raw materials necessary for the production of batteries,” the Accounting Chamber emphasizes.

Emissions from the transport sector accounted for 23% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, more than half of which came from private cars, and continue to rise.