UNECE to align heavy-duty vehicle engine emissions requirements with Euro VI
23 January 2012
The UNECE Working Party on Pollution and Energy has approved a proposal to align the requirements on emissions from heavy-duty vehicle engines to the Euro VI legislation (EC Regulations 595/2009 and 582/2011), which enter into force in the European Union (EU) in January 2013.
The amendment to Regulation Nº 49 (which covers the emission of pollutants by heavy duty vehicle engines) of the 1958 UNECE agreement on vehicle type approval and its mutual recognition will allow all non-EU parties to the agreement, including Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Malaysia, Montenegro, Norway, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Switzerland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine to apply these new ceilings.
The proposal will be submitted to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) in June 2012 for its final adoption. It will enter into force gradually as of the first quarter of 2013, with full application in January 2014.
The new ceilings introduce a reduction in emissions of 50% or more for hydrocarbons, non-methane hydrocarbons, methane,nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Some of these pollutants are contributing to global warming via their greenhouse gas effect (methane’s Global Warming Potential for a 100-year time horizon is 21 times higher than CO2), while others have adverse effects on human health.
The maximum emission limits allowed for engines used on heavy duty vehicles have been the object of several legislative initiatives since the 1980s, which have resulted in massive reductions in emissions of pollutants:
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| Euro emission levels. Source: UNECE. Click to enlarge. |
GRPE (Groupe de travail de la pollution et de l’énergie, the Working Party on Pollution and Energy) is the subsidiary body of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) in charge of the preparation of regulatory proposals on pollution and energy efficiency.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was established in 1947 and is is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations. The others are the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA); Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). UNECE’s major aim is to promote pan-European economic integration.
The EU has been so lazy in addressing toxic emissions that the advanced Third World is catching up with them. They have agreed to meet the supposedly First World, EU toxic emissions standards.
Ordinarily that would be good news, but it only shows how the Euro Greens, talk and talk but do nothing, and don't really give a damn. Just like their former East Bloc socialist comrades did.
Meanwhile the USA nears totally Clean Air. America is actually proposing the last toxic emissions standards ever, for not just breathable clean air, which it has had in effect for 20 years, and that the EU has not yet proposed to match, but totally pristine Clean Air.
Posted by: Stan Peterson | 27 January 2012 at 02:15 PM