The powerful German car lobby has succeeded in softening the EU's demands on CO2 reductions, writes Derek Scallyin Berlin
A love of clean air and fast cars have for decades been central, if seemingly contradictory, elements of the German national character. The slow death of Black Forest trees is as much a national obsession as the right to drive on the Autobahn through the Black Forest at whatever speed you feel like. Roaring your big, empty Mercedes around the corner to one of Berlin's countless organic food shops to buy clean, green produce does not raise eyebrows.
Germans have counted themselves among Europe's eco-avant garde since the advent of recycling in the 1970s, but resistance soon builds to any new ecological proposal when it becomes clear it comes at a cost to the consumer.
So when the European Commission suggested forcing car manufacturers to modify their engines to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the powerful German car lobby went to work.
It egged on Germany's commissioner Günter Verheugen in Brussels to oppose the draft proposal before it appeared; it rallied support in Berlin and got a passionate speech defending the German car industry from Chancellor Merkel. Decisively, it played ecological gain against financial pain, saying that new engine technology would cost tens of thousands of German jobs and make cars at least €4,000 more expensive for all.
The plan worked and even before the environment commissioner Stavros Dimas presented his proposals on Wednesday, he agreed to change its central point: that cars produce no more than 120g of CO2 per kilometre by 2012. Now the ceiling has been raised to 130g per kilometre, in effect ordering European car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions by 18 per cent by 2012 instead of the original 25 per cent.
The proposal is likely to contain a get-out clause by imposing the limit on a Europe-wide basis rather than applying it to individual countries or model of car. That's a relief for the German premium car manufacturers: a list published yesterday showed that the biggest belchers of CO2 are German-made sports cars such as the Porsche Carrera and luxury saloons such as the Mercedes CLS 500, which produce 266g and 268g per kilometre respectively.
Germany is Europe's leading producer of cars - in particular high-end, high-emission models - and Wednesday's CO2 proposals were seen here as a victory for the German car lobby. So were the champagne corks popping in Berlin this week? "There's no victorious mood here today," said Manuela Höhne, spokesperson of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).
"The fact is that what was presented is a very ambitious target for car manufacturers. It won't be a walk in the park, but we welcome that the integrated approach will come into play." The integrated approach was pushed by Günter Verheugen, so that not just manufacturers are responsible for CO2 emissions of their cars.
Now other factors will be considered, including greater use of carbon-free "biofuels" and improving the efficiency of tyres and air-conditioning systems. How any of these other factors will be rated, weighted or calculated remains unclear.
Chancellor Merkel delivered a killer argument in Berlin, telling an appreciative audience of business leaders that the EU would be foolish to be too ambitious in environmental protection because getting too far ahead of other countries such as China and the US could create a competitive disadvantage for European companies.
"Variety is the trademark of Europe, also in production," she said, adding confidently: "I think I can go as far to say that we will prevent a general, across-the-board reduction." A week later, her prediction came true.
IN CASE THERE was any confusion about Berlin's position, Germany's conservative economics minister Michael Glos made things clear: "The European Commission's planned exhaust levels for cars are unacceptable. This is not about environmental policy but hard-nosed industrial policy interests."
The political influence of the German car lobby matches its economic clout: the sector produces 5.5 million cars annually and had a total turnover of €236 billion in 2005, double that of a decade earlier.
It is the country's largest employer with 773,000 workers. Add secondary industries and one in seven German workers is dependent on the car industry.
The power of the car lobby was clear when even the powerful IG Metall metalworkers' union - traditionally the industry's loudest opponent - protested in Brussels about the stricter CO2 proposals, rattled by warnings that the stricter measures would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Claims like that raise the hackles of German environmental activists. "Every time something like this comes around, from unleaded petrol to diesel filters, the industry says it will cost a fortune and result in job cuts and none of that ever happens," said Rüdiger Rosenthal, spokesman for Bund, Germany's largest environmental group.
Bund calls the CO2 compromise "an attack on global climate protection" and rejects industry statistics about greater fuel efficiency as irrelevant because, it says, consumers are buying larger, heavier cars and SUVs.
A Bund study shows that, since 2001, an average Volkswagen car is 130kg heavier, while an average Porsche weighs 300kg more. Greater weight means greater fuel consumption and German cars emit 170g per kilometre of CO2 on average, 20g above the European average.
"It's shocking how regressive and reactionary the debate is here," says Rosenthal. "One week you have the climate change report and politicians call for autobahn speed limits and so on. The next week when limits on CO2 emissions are proposed they say it can't be done, or that it's too much. The short-sightedness is frustrating." The German media have picked up on that thought, questioning Germany's green credentials and highlighting what it calls a "policy schizophrenia" during its EU presidency: environmental protection is a priority so long as it doesn't hurt German industry.
Sensing defeat last weekend, Stavros Dimas fumed in Bild am Sonntag newspaper that if Germany didn't play ball on reducing CO2 emissions, it could have far wider consequences.
"If Germany bucks the trend, then the rest of Europe won't go along with it," he said. "And if Europe isn't going along with it, neither will the rest of the world."