Reduction of air pollution from motor vehicle exhaust gases
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 22 January 1972 (19th Sitting) (see Doc. 3074, report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1972 (19th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Considering that vehicle exhaust gases and their ingredients are particularly noxious, especially in densely populated areas ;
2. Considering that the problem of exhaust gases is being greatly aggravated by the steadily increasing number of motor vehicles, and that traffic jams in towns at rush hours are largely to blame for excessive pollution ;
3. Considering that modern technology makes it possible to reduce substantially the concentration of harmful or suspect elements in the exhaust gases of combustion engines ;
4. Noting that regulations concerning the emission of gaseous pollutants by petrol-fuelled motor vehicles have been in force in the United States for many years, that different regulations issued by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) have been incorporated recently into European Economic Community (EEC) directives and that regulations differing from the US and ECE regulations have been adopted by Sweden ;
5. Concerned that the beneficial results of the regulations passed in European countries will soon be offset by the increasing number of motor vehicles, and stressing the need to strengthen considerably the European emission regulations ;
6. Considering it to be of the greatest importance for the stability of the car market and for motor traffic that the same standards and technical requirements be applied in as many countries as possible ;
7. Convinced that legislative action ought to be undertaken, without awaiting the results of other research, along the lines of the Federal standards and legislation adopted by the United States with regard to the limitation of pollutant emissions from motor vehicles,
8. Appeals to all Council of Europe member States to ensure that environmental experts are engaged in national and international work in the field of motor vehicle emission control ;
9. Invites its members, as a first step, to put forward in their respective national parliaments draft legislation, using as a guide the Federal standards and legislative provisions laid down by the United States for 1973 - 74 model light duty motor vehicles.
