The Heavy Duty Vehicles CO2 Emission Standard is an EU initiative under the EU Green Deal to clean the heavy transport sector; a sector comprising only 2% of Europe’s transport, but responsible for 28% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport. The initiative aims to increase the number of electric heavy vehicles in Europe and reduce the climate and planetary health impact from these vehicles.
While these will help to reduce the impact that transport has in Europe, and will work in concert with a number of other policies in health and environment, a key health challenge remains, and that is the inclusion of alternative fuels as a sustainable option for transport. Despite the name, alternatives, namely biofuels, are not a sustainable option and will continue to impact the health of Europeans, and the European and global climate and environment.
Alternatively, fuels represent multiple public health risks:
- They do not reduce air pollution and health effects of some of the major air pollutants that cause harm in Europe
- They do not help to reduce the health burden from traffic noise
- They continue to emit carbon dioxide and contribute to climate change
- They impact planetary health and degrade natural systems
Better, healthier, actually sustainable technologies are available to help clean the transport fleet. EPHA believes that these should be the priority, and not the continuation of internal combustion engines and fuels in any form, and will continue to push for a 100% sustainable transport fleet, without allowances for alternative fuels, by 2040, at the very latest
