Eco-Innovation CO2-Reducing Technologies: Status and Future Challenge

ABSTRACT

The EU projects reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, thus reducing CO2 emissions is a priority in the European Climate Law published in 2021. The transport sector is the second contributor to CO2, responsible for around 26% of EU greenhouse gasses emissions. In 2020, GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from transport in the EU have dropped by 12.7% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As society comes back to normality, vehicles use is increasing again. To reach the emission targets, new vehicles can introduce CO2-reducing eco-innovative technologies. So far, these technologies accepted under WLTP are light-emitting diodes and efficient alternators. Nevertheless, many other technologies have potential as eco-innovations. In the past, eco-innovative technologies have contributed to reducing EU CO2 emissions. In 2018, the fleet of newly registered cars with eco-innovations saved around 11000 tonnes of CO2. An increasing tendency is seen in 2019 21000 tonnes of CO2 were saved at fleet level. During 2020, new car registrations with eco-innovations were higher, having the potential to save around 40000 tonnes of CO2 at fleet level. Despite their positive impact, their CO2-reducing effect can be diminished when two of these technologies interact with each other. The presence of the lighting system and the alternator lowers the CO2 savings if compared to the summation of the savings of each technology separately. The impact of the interactions of approved eco-innovations can imply a decrease of 9% of the sum of the CO2 savings from each technology considered independent from the other. ©