Eco-Innovation CO ₂ -Reducing Technologies: Status and Future Challenge 2022-37-0031

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.