EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy A report prepared for the European Parliament Greens/EFA Group January 2016 EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy, January 2016 Executive Summary The Volkswagen NOx scandal has shed light on the broader issue of how progressive EU NOx automotive emissions policy, initially recommended by the European Commission in the late 1990s, has been influenced and captured by the automotive industry and its political champions in the Member States. The extent of this capture by industry is such that despite the successive introduction of ever stricter standards in the last decade which each significantly reduced the legal limit of NOx emissions, evidence suggests no clear reduction in the level NOx emissions and even an increase from Euro 5/6 vehicles. In the immediate aftermath of the VW scandal, the European Commission on October 28th 2015 passed revisions to EU NOx regulations, in particular, moving to a real world testing system (RDE) and changes to allowed compliance levels (the so called Conformity Factor). Out of concern that the automotive lobby had compromised this EC decision and given the industry too much leeway to continue emitting far more NOx than the standards prescribe, the ENVI Committee within the European Parliament launched an enquiry in December 2015 and then rejected the Commission’s proposal. A required full vote within the European Parliament was scheduled for January 2016, but the vote was postponed till February. Our analysis found that the industry associations ACEA (Europe-wide) and the VDA (Germany) along with auto-makers Daimler and Ford to be the most opposed to progressive European NOx policy while Member States the United Kingdom and Spain similarly have blocked NOx motions proposed by the Commission in the last few years. At the other end of the spectrum, the the ENVI Committee of the European Parliement adopts the most supportive stance towards NOx policy in line with recommendations put forward by the European Commission in the late 1990s. 1 EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy, January 2016 A number of automotive manufacturers have been advocating to policy makers that current Euro 5/6 standards are too stringent and damaging to the industry. Daimler has claimed the Euro 5/6 standards resulted in a loss of competitiveness, Fiat Chrysler publicly emphasized the “additional cost pressures”, and Volkswagen and Renault highlighted the negative impact on diesel vehicle sales. Ford also suggested in a correspondence with the EC that it had been anticipating that NOx emissions testing would be weakened or emissions targets relaxed. The UK auto industry trade association (the SMMT) appears to have been misleading about their actual knowledge of real world diesel emissions in public facing messaging. The SMMT in March 2015 launched a campaign promoting diesel engines as the “cleanest ever”. The French auto industry association CCFA claimed that in 2014 modern diesel engines with filters could reduce NOx emissions equivalent to clean air levels, and has also critiqued WHO NOx health risk findings, both contradictory to accepted science. Reacting to the Volkswagen scandal, BMW suggested NOx emissions from vehicles only affect people with existing respiratory problems, a position contradicted by most scientists on the subject. The Commissions DG Growth which leads within the EC on vehicle emissions policy, was aware that real word diesel emissions were many times in excess of laboratory testing following a report by the Joint Research Council (JRC) in 2011. The JRC and other NGO reports also clearly stated that automotive manufacturers were deliberately manipulating emissions testing. Similarly there are indications that the EC DG Growth had been aware of the use of defeat devices since 2013. InfluenceMap’s analysis and ranking of how entities have communicated and acted on key regulatory issues related to the control of NOx emissions found that European nations with significant automotive industries are more aligned with the positions of automobile manufacturers than they are with the positions of organizations within the EU concerned with public health and the environment. 2 EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy, January 2016 The Scores Compared InfluenceMap analysed government, EU, industry and NGO entities using our proprietary analysis and scoring software for measuring influence over policy. The scores range from 100% (highly supportive of progressive EU NOx policy) to 0% (highly obstructive of progressive EU NOx policy). Here is an overview of the scores of the various entities concerned. Entity Type NOx Support Score Transport & Environment NGO 96% Friends of the Earth NGO 93% The ENVI Committee (EP) EU Institution 85% European Commission EU Institution 53% France Member State 49% Germany Member State 46% PSA Automobile Manufacturer 45% SMMT (UK) Trade Association 44% BMW Automobile Manufacturer 41% CCFA (France) NGO 41% Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Automobile Manufacturer 37% Renault Automobile Manufacturer 37% Volkswagen Automobile Manufacturer 36% Italy Member State 35% TCMV EU Institution 33% United Kingdom Member State 32% VDA (Germany) Trade Association 32% Daimler Automobile Manufacturer 31% Ford Automobile Manufacturer 22% ACEA Trade Association 19% Spain Member State 18% 3 EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy, January 2016 Contents Executive Summary 1 The Scores Compared 3 Introduction 5 Background to this Report 6 Glossary of Terms 9 Details on Government, Industry and NGO Entities 11 Member States 11 France 11 Germany 12 Italy 14 Spain 15 The UK 16 European Institutions 18 The European Commission 18 The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (The ENVI Committee) 20 The Technical Committee - Motor vehicles (TCMV) 21 Automotive Manufacturers 23 BMW 23 Daimler 24 Fiat Chrysler 25 Ford 26 PSA Peugeot Citroen 28 Renault 29 Volkswagen 30 Trade Associations and NGOs 33 ACEA 33 Comité des Constructeurs Français d'Automobiles (CCFA) 34 Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) 35 VDA German automotive industry association 37 Friends of the Earth 38 Transport & Environment 39 Appendix - Methodology 41 4 EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy, January 2016 Introduction The following report was prepared by UK based non-profit InfluenceMap CIC for the Greens/EFA Group within the European Parliament in December 2015. The study analyses how the automotive sector may be influencing EU automotive NOx policy (directly and via Member States and trade bodies) prior to and in the wake of the VW scandal, with particular reference to the formulation of the NOx automotive emissions standards in EURO/5/6 Regulation 715/2007/EC and associated testing processes (hence referred to as "EU NOx policy"). This report was prepared with reference to publicly available documents, non-public documents made available to InfluenceMap and expert interviews. All conclusions are referenced fully. The sections of the report are as follows. A glossary of terms and abbreviations A background to the need for this report Executive Summary Profiles of the relative positions of the key policy making institutions (state actors), NGOs and automotive industry players on aspects of EU NOx policy We present our detailed methodology in the Appendix sections All evidence is referenced with sources and hyperlinks where public documents are available. Where needed, links are back to InfluenceMap's site where non public documents are catalogued. InfluenceMap's proprietary methodology for analysing and ranking engagement by groups of entities on regulatory issues is outlined for global climate policy on our website here. We modified this to analyse the EU NOx policy process as described in the appendix. About lobbying and influence We recognise that corporations are manifestly involved in the progress of policy and legislation formation (in all areas, not only environmental issues) affecting their business and they regard the need to do this as part of their operating model. Research has indicated that this influence likely extends beyond the activities normally associated with the word "lobbying" (e.g. donations to clearly motivated political actors) and includes the domination of the public discourse via their hugely powerful messaging channels (e.g. advertising, PR, social media, access to influential meetings and politicans) as well as the use of influencers like trade associations and advocacy groups who are engaged in these activities in a focused and consistent manner. We also note the secondment of technical staff and provision of technical advice from the automotive sector to key technical committees within the EU system. It is in this context that we use the word lobbying. See here for a full discussion. 5 EU NOx emissions: how the automotive industry shaped policy, January 2016 Background to this Report The Volkswagen NOx scandal has shed light on the broader issue of how progressive EU NOx automotive emissions policy, initially recommended by the European Commission in the late 1990s, has been influenced and captured by the automotive industry and its political champions in the Member States. It is now evident that the technologies used to reduce harmful NOx and other emissions from diesel engines in passenger cars and which allowed, for example Volkswagen’s 2008 Clean Diesel marketing push, consume significant amount of power.