Euro-Parliament gives green light to emission curbs for off-road machinery
Bulldozer - Image CC BY-SA
(STRASBOURG) - Euro-MPs backed Wednesday plans to update EU type approval rules and emission limits for internal combustion engines in non-road mobile machinery such as lawn mowers, bulldozers and diesel locomotives.
The plans had already been agreed informally with the Dutch Presidency of the Council. NRMM engines account for about 15 per cent of all NOx and 5% of particulate emissions in the EU.
In a 2014 report, the European Environment Agency had said that the EU was far from achieving air quality levels that do not result in unacceptable risks to humans and the environment. The agency estimated that every year, 72,000 premature deaths are attributable to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 403,000 to particulate matter (PM). Commission estimates show that air pollution in the EU costs around EUR 330-940 billion per year.
Parliament's rapporteur for the legislation Elisabetta Gardini MEP said: "We have tightened the limits proposed by the European Commission even further for many engines' power ranges, but we kept the approach reasonable enough so that the industry can comply with the new requirements in a short time - and this was the most important goal."
The legislation defines engine categories, which are divided into sub-categories according to their power range. For each category, it sets emission limits for CO, HC, NOX and particulate matter (PM) and deadlines for implementing them, starting from 2018.
Compared to the existing directive, the legislation covers more types of engines, simplifies administrative procedures and improves enforcement and market surveillance.
The plans include a new in-service engine performance monitoring system which should close the current gap between laboratory emission test figures and those measured in the real world.
As advocated by MEPs, the EU Commission will have to assess the possibility of laying down harmonised measures for retrofitting emission control devices to engines.
The new NRMM regulation will cover all kinds of combustion engines, used for example in small hand-held equipment, generating sets, harvesting and agricultural machinery, construction machinery, rail-cars and locomotives, and inland waterway vessels. These engines will have to meet the same requirements, regardless of their fuels, in order to boost innovation in the sector.
Further information, European Parliament
Adopted text will be available here (05.07.2016)