Post date: 06-Apr-2016 16:15:45

A leaked report shows that the European car industry wants taxpayers to foot a £600 billion road improvement bill in a bid to reduce CO2 emissions across the continent.

The proposal is part of a draft paper from the European Automotive Manufacturers Association due to be released late April come early May 2016. Its premise is that car makers are doing all that they can (not the VW group obviously with their 13 million illegally polluting petrol and diesel new cars sold since 2008!) to meet the 2021 vehicle emissions target of no more than 95/km of CO2 but that to meet the later more stringent target of 20130 that government involvement is required.

Resurfacing of all 28 member states roads is urgent as a key driver for reducing C)2 emissions is ensuring Europe's roads have LOW RESISTANCE and WELL MAINTAINED ROADS. With all the tax we pay this should already be the case instead of a back-log of £12 billion in road repairs to nearly 3 billion pot holes across the UK alone.

The auto makers are demanding public investment of £600 billion spread across 20 years (£30 billion every year) claiming that if all the European roads were resurfaced that there would be C)2 reduction of up to 5% by 2035 compared to 2015. Green organisations of course have rubbished these claims and demands.

Watch this space to see what developments in terms of announcements and actions in due course if the EU doesn't kick this into the long grass with other bug bears it refuses to face and act upon.

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