Belgium’s oil federation, FPB, is calling for a review of plans for a total ban on diesel vehicles.
The last generation of diesel-powered vehicles need to comply with the strictest limits to fine-particle and nitrogen-oxide emissions, the federation noted. “The new vehicles will be at least as efficient as the electric cars,” the FPB added at a press conference it organised on Thursday on the future of diesel vehicles.
The federation explained that vehicles subject to the new Euro6d and Euro6temp standards approved for 2020 onward will not have any impact on air quality. Fine-particle and nitrogen-oxide emissions will be largely compliant with atmospheric emission limits, it argued.
Tests on vehicles governed by the Euro6d and Euro6temp norms will now be complemented by a road test conducted in real conditions, which should strengthen the reliability of the tests, according to the FPB, deploring what it described as an “irrational and ideological demonisation” of diesel.
The federation went on to describe low-emission zones as an effective way to improve air quality as long as environmental goals are set, and high-performing technologies are not excluded.
“Banning all diesel vehicles, as Brussels Region plans to do by 2030, is therefore unjustified and useless,” it argued.
“We’re not against electricity or hydrogen, but we feel it’s in the interest of society not to ban diesel,” FPB Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Van Dijk said. “In the first place because no-one is sure the other solutions are the good ones.”
The Brussels Times
