New governance or symbolic policy? – Evaluation and recommendations for the agreement between the European Commission and the automobile industry

Daniel Bongardt and Kristina Kebeck, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Research Group on Energy, Transport and Climate Policy, Germany

Keywords

transport, voluntary agreement, CO2 emission reduction, European Union, ACEA, car industry, energy efficiency, theory-based evaluation approach

Abstract

In 1998, the European Commission proposed a strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from passenger cars. Main elements of this three-parsed strategy are the voluntary agreements between the Commission and the automobile industries from Europe (ACEA), Japan (JAMA) and Korea (KAMA). The aim is an average CO2-reduction by 25 % for all new registered passenger cars from 1995 to 2008 (ACEA) respectively 2009 (JAMA and KAMA). This figure equals an average emission objective of 140 g CO2/km. Until today, the average CO2 emissions have decreased from 186 g CO2/km to 163 g CO2/km in 2004. It is likely that industry will not meet its target.

This paper is looking at the voluntary agreement with the European car industry (ACEA) more closely. The aim is to analyse the policy implementation processes by identifying the cause-impact-relationship and explaining the key factors of success and failure. The analysis follows the ‘policy theory based evaluation’ approach.

Main critiques of the policy process focus on the target of the agreement. The CO2 reduction target of new passenger cars by 25 % was set up without conducting a feasibility study beforehand. In order to meet the Kyoto objective more ambitious targets would have been necessary. Moreover, the agreements target is linked to technology diffusion, but the ongoing increase in weight and power of passenger cars has offset a lot of potential in reducing CO2 emissions. The mechanisms of public pressure and peer pressure among companies, based on an elaborated monitoring procedure, do, as single driving-forces not seem to be sufficient. Thus, alternative measures have to be introduced in order to fulfil the 2008 target. However, the agreement with the car manufacturers certainly makes actors sensible and the annual monitoring reports keep this topic on the European Agenda.

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