The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
September 29, 2015

Report: European Cars May Be Emitting 40% More Carbon Than Thought 
-------------------------------------------------------------------


 
New data shows European cars may be emitting as much as 40 percent more
carbon dioxide than previously thought, suggesting Volkswagen's cheating
scandal is part of an industry-wide problem. Greg Archer, program
director of the group Transport & Environment, which works closely with
the European Commission, announced the report's findings Monday.

Greg Archer: "And what we found is that there is a really big, growing
gap between the official test results and the real-world performance
that people are actually getting. And on average that gap is now 40
percent. But for some manufacturers the gap is a great deal bigger. For
example, we know that, on average, Mercedes cars now are achieving a gap
of 48 percent."

This report comes as German prosecutors have launched a criminal
investigation against former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn following
revelations Volkswagen had illegally installed devices in 11 million
cars worldwide to cheat emissions tests. A New York Times analysis
estimates the extra pollution may have caused more than 100 deaths in
the United States alone.

 

.