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February 08, 2007

Emissions

Germany has been battling the EU again for the last weeks or probably months about the amount of CO2 emissions. We agreed at last to reduce our CO2 emissions to 453 instead of 465 million tons as originally planned.

Overall Europe today cars emit an average of about 163 grams CO2 per kilometer, in 2012 this will have to be reduced to 130 grams per kilometer by improving car motors and technology. Originally, EU-commissioner Stavros
Dimas wanted CO2 emissions reduced to 120 grams per kilometer. The German car manufacturing industry promptly cried out loud and kicked up a fuss and said this was impossible to achieve and thousands of jobs would be lost and Germany would loose one of its key industries and all the rest that is usually said in such circumstances. What really astonishes me is that 130 grams is a value the car industry can agree to. Piece of cake, they said. I mean, if 130 grams are easy to achieve, why not 120?

The real reason, I think, is that the German car industry has taken a wrong turn some years ago. They thought the most promising car models were the one of the high price sector: fast, powerful engines, lots of horse power, admittedly nice to drive but guzzling up petrol at an appalling speed. I really have no patience with those people driving these new luxury off roaders made by Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen not because they live in the wilderness and need the car to get around but because they like to park it in front of the supermarket where it instantaneously becomes an obstacle in our narrow streets just because they like to show off on their way home from the tennis court. I may be prejudiced but what really got me going the other day was watching an interview on TV a few days ago with a middle aged blond lady driving one of these, her daughter sitting in the passenger seat and answering the question why she drove a car like that in town with: "Well, my husband chose this car for me. And I feel very comfortable and safe driving it. And if it uses up 18 litres of petrol for 100 kilometers - hmm, it can't be helped, can it?"

Mind you, I am not jealous because I cannot afford to drive a car like that. It is not my lifelong ambition to do that. Being a chemist, I just think that petrol, or rather all the different hydrocarbon compounds it contains, could be put to a much better use as raw materials for quite a number of products instead of simply being burnt in a car no one really needs around here. The other thing I fail to understand is why people are so opposed to a speed limit of 130 km/h on German otorways. There's so much traffic around by now that it is very seldom you can go faster than that anyway. It's probably just the feeling that you could if you could and with a speed limit you can't even if you could!

Posted by Mausi at February 8, 2007 06:52 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Wil at February 10, 2007 04:49 PM