On the 13th of January, Kathleen Van Brempt stated in the Belgian broadsheet De Standaard that Australian cars emit on average 45% more CO2 than their European counterparts. Van Brempt is a Member of European parliament for the Flemish socialist party sp.a. Her claim is true.
In the European Parliament, Kathleen Van Brempt is responsible for energy and environmental management. She extracted the information from a report ‘Select Committee on Electric Vehicles’ published by the Senate of Australia in January 2019. In the report the National Transports Commission states that, when compared globally, “the CO2 emission intensity for passenger cars in Australia during 2017 was 171.5g/km, 45 % higher than the European average of 118.5 g/km.”
Lax emission standards
Mark Pecqueur, researcher in Vehicle Technology at Thomas More University college in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium, says that this can be explained by the lax CO2 emission standards in Australia, which are on average 192g/km, compared to the European standard of 130g/km. Pecqueur highlights that as a result, Australian vehicles are equipped with a heavier engine which results in higher CO2 emission levels.
In conclusion, the claim written by Kathleen Van Brempt in De Standaard about CO2 emission of Australian cars is true.
RESEARCH | ARTICLE © AP University College Antwerp, Belgium
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