The European parliament's environment committee has voted against the latest proposal to limit nitrogen oxide (NOx) passenger car emissions, according to a Reuters report. The rules being debated regarded the conformity factor (CF), which effectively relates to the amount of leeway carmakers are allowed in meeting NOx emissions targets. The rules that had been on the table would have continued to allow cars emit NOx emissions at far greater level than the official limit, but the environment committee voted 40 to 9 against the resolution. The legislation will now have to be debated again in the European parliament and will have to be resubmitted to the environment committee.
Significance: The regulations regarding the CF had been agreed back in October after many of the 28 EU countries requested that extra leeway was built into the CF to protect carmakers. The emissions testing regimes that govern the compliance of diesel passenger cars for public sale have been much in the news recently and have been the subject of discussion for OEMs and regulators as a result of the VW emissions affair. There is a growing will among regulators to tackle the long-known-about discrepancy between lab emissions testing and real-world driving emissions. The CF has been the key sticking point in negotiations. The forthcoming EU directive regarding real driving emissions (RDE) will come in two phases (September 2017 and September 2019), but it appears that the key issue of the CFhas yet to be agreed.
