T&E

The EIB lent €7bn to dirty transport projects – analysis After declaring itself a ‘climate bank’, the EU investment bank still financed new roads and airport expansions.

🔎 T&E’s analysis of the previous roadmap analysed this and other dubious transport lending cases. Check it out 👇
www.transportenvironment.org/articles/the...

@ecologistasenaccion.org
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𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻.

The EIB must stand by its climate commitments – and put its money into decarbonising Europe’s aviation sector.

#Airportexpansion is completely antithetical to this goal.
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💰 In 2023, the EIB granted Spanish airport operator Aena an €𝟴𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗻 to support its 2022–26 investment plan, which includes expanding capacity at 13 airports across Spain – despite the EIB’s commitment to end financing for airport expansion under the previous version of the Bank Roadmap.
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Quote from Denise Auclair, Head of Travel Smart Campaign at T&E: “The EIB’s decision to maintain its ban on airport expansion funding is a clear signal that bankrolling the aviation sector’s plans to grow at uncontrollable rates is nonsensical. But the real test starts now: the ban must be enforced to the letter, with no loopholes or backdoor financing.”

🛫 The European Investment Bank (@eib.org) published on Friday its new #ClimateBank Roadmap Phase 2.

The EIB’s decision to maintain the ban on funding for airport expansion is key.

However, this ban should also be enforced with no backdoor financing.
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España podría recaudar hasta 2.800 millones de euros si impusiera un… El privilegio fiscal de la aviación española frena la transición verde y una vía para la reindustrialización del país, según un nuevo estudio de T&E

This revenue could go directly into funding solutions for one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize: aviation.

The revenue could be used to fund projects such as more sustainable aviation fuels, like synthetic kerosene.

👉 Read briefing from our Spanish office (ES) ⤵️
bit.ly/4okObDl
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And they would only need to add a small surcharge to the fare:
💸 from €12–15 on an economy ticket
💼 from €50–60 on a business ticket

And if private jets — which pollute 5–14x more than economy travel — paid their fair share, that could mean an additional €72 million.
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If they applied the “polluter pays” principle, like France, Germany, the Netherlands or the UK already do, Spain could easily collect that extra €2.8 billion, similar to building 18 hospitals in Spain.
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🇪🇸 Spain loses nearly the most potential tax revenue in the EU, second only to France.

Why? Because aviation enjoys a tax privilege that other forms of transport don’t.
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Graph showing tax revenue from air ticket taxation in Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as potential revenue for Spain under T&E's moderate and ambitious proposals.

✈️ NEW: Spain could raise up to €2.8 billion extra for sustainable aviation by matching the taxes other Europeans put on airline tickets with simply a small surcharge per ticket.
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German identity doesn’t rely on cars – Brussels should face down the mighty automakers | Tania Roettger Mercedes-Benz and other big manufacturers want to overturn the EU’s 2035 ban on petrol cars. This would be as disastrous for jobs as for the climate, says Berlin-based journalist Tania Roettger

Mercedes-Benz and others want to overturn the EU’s 2035 ban on petrol cars.

This would be as disastrous for jobs as for the climate.

"Car manufacturers are already letting people go... Continuing to make combustion-engine models would not staunch job losses in the long run."
bit.ly/42KvmRq

10 years after Dieselgate, the car industry is paving the way for… Manufacturers want to kill off EU rules that would better reflect pollution from plug-in hybrid vehicles

Europe must draw a line at further concessions on PHEVs.

EU lawmakers must also use the revision of the ‘roadworthiness package’ of legislation to remove the highly polluting diesel vehicles carrying defeat devices that are still on the road. Read more bit.ly/4nrSITM

The EU has set ‘utility factors’ to gradually tighten this gap, but the car industry has called on the EU Commission to kill off these instead of taking steps to zero-emission mobility.
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On top of that, carmakers are again trying to pass off vehicles as cleaner than they actually are.

Today, CO2 emissions from plug-in hybrids are found to be nearly 5x what official testing shows, allowing carmakers to misclassify their PHEV sales as low-emission vehicles.
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This makes Dieselgate an ongoing scandal. Unless action is taken, 40% of related premature deaths are yet to come – due to vehicles still on the road.
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While the US fined carmakers and forced them to buy-back or fix the vehicles, in Europe up to 19.1 million suspiciously emitting cars are still being driven.
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Ten years ago, the Dieselgate scandal exposed how Europe’s biggest carmakers deliberately installed defeat devices to cheat emissions tests on millions of vehicles.

These cars polluted up to 10 times above legal limits, poisoning the air we breathe and damaging citizens’ health.
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10 years after carmakers were caught cheating, the next Dieselgate scandal will be legal.

Are PHEVs the new defeat device?
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Today T&E joined @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu for a dialogue on the future of the EU auto industry.

While the industry is pushing to open up the CO2 standards, the EU's top priority must be to keep a clear investment signal.

Read the debrief from our Executive Director 👉 bit.ly/4nztWRX

„Das Elektroauto ist einfach die bessere Technologie“ Autoindustrie und EU-Kommission wollen über die Lage der Branche beraten. Dabei sind sich die Hersteller bei Verbrennerverbot und Staatshilfen selbst nicht einig.

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆” - 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶 𝗖𝗘𝗢

As EU Commission President Von der Leyen debates the future of the 2035 cars CO2 Regulation with auto execs, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner criticised industry efforts to undermine the auto sector's transition to electric.
bit.ly/42q7Bhe

Hybrid cars are not low-emission fix to meet EU CO2 targets, says campaign group Hybrid cars release far more carbon dioxide than their official ratings indicate and should not qualify as low-emission vehicles to meet European Union targets, a report by transport research and campaign group T&E said on Wednesday.

As the car industry prepares to meet with @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu tomorrow, new data shows that plug-in hybrids emit far more than their official ratings indicate.

PHEVs should not qualify as low-emission in order to reach EU climate targets, despite automaker lobbying efforts.

T&E is calling for the Passenger Rights Regulation included in the package to fix this by requiring all rail operators to allow travellers to take the next train when there is a missed connection.
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Some rail operators have agreements to allow passengers jump on to the next service, but this doesn’t cover all routes.

This gap needs to be addressed in the Commission’s forthcoming Single Ticketing Package, the most ambitious set of measures to boost cross-border rail in decades.
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🇮🇹➡️🇩🇪
Similarly, taking Italo from Rome to Bologna and Deutsche Bahn from Bologna to Munich costs €67 in total.

But if the Italo train is delayed, causing you to miss your connection to Munich, you will be out an additional €116 for a same-day ticket.

Again, the trip’s total cost nearly triples.
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But if the Iryo train is delayed, meaning you miss the SNCF connection? A last-minute ticket for the Barcelona to Paris leg of the trip alone will cost an additional €261.

This means the trip’s total cost becomes 3x more expensive… for reasons outside the passenger’s control.
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Travellers on many routes are not automatically given a new ticket to continue with their journey when a connection is missed due to a delay.

🇪🇸➡️🇫🇷
For example, a trip between Madrid and Paris costs €135 when booked two months in advance through two operators: Iryo to Barcelona & SNCF to Paris.
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The EU is weak on passenger rights for rail travel, and it is directly impacting European’s pocketbooks 🎫💸

Europe needs urgent reform of the ticketing for its rail network if it hopes to make trains a reliable means of transport.
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The future is electric whether we like it or not.

VDL is right: we need to be a part of it.
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Focus on "Made in EU" preference for cleantech is also positive. The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act needs to boost demand for sustainable technologies produced in Europe, especially batteries and their components.
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Calling for "urgent action", VdL also referenced the future Battery Booster, announcing €1.8 bn in "equity" for European battery producers. While not perfect this can help ramp up domestic production of batteries.
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This should be a strong signal for those questioning 2035. VDL emphasised the need for Made in Europe EVs and specifically mentioned an “affordable car initiative” for electric cars made on the continent.
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