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ENVI missing opportunity to include available solutions says NGVA Europe

Commenting on the recent European Parliament Committee on Environment Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adoption of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions standard proposal for new heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs), Natural & bio Gas Vehicle Association (NGVA Europe) points out the missing opportunity to include already available cost-effective solutions with regard to the long-term decarbonisation target.

According to NGVA Europe, renewable gas transportation fuels such as liquefied biomethane (bioLNG) or compressed biomethane (bioCNG) are ready to play a fundamental role in heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) decarbonisation process.

At a European Parliament Committee on Environment Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) meeting on October 18, MEPs proposed a 35 percent reduction target, 5 percent higher than the European Commission’s 30 percent proposal, for new heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) to reduce EU emissions by 2030, with an intermediate target of 20 percent by 2025.

Today, a truck running on our European roads with bioCNG or bioLNG emits on a Well-to-Wheel basis less than 5 g CO2/km per tonne of payload, and this is passing through the current approach of this legislation, said Andrea Gerini, Secretary-General, NGVA Europe.

For this reason, NGVA Europe will continue to ask for an early inclusion of a Well-to-Wheel mechanism. Renewable gas transportation fuels are ready to play a fundamental role in making the decarbonisation process start earlier in the heavy-duty sector.

But even under the current tailpipe emissions approach, natural gas results a key technology in the future transport scenario: natural gas provides a reduction in tailpipe CO2 emissions by 12 percent compared to fossil diesel, going up to 20 percent with the new solutions based on high-pressure direct injection system.

This, in combination with low pollutant emissions level and a reduction by 50 percent of the noise level compared to diesel, represents a “concrete answer” towards a more sustainable transport model NGVA Europe says.

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