Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

I was going to get to that. I am not aware of any such work. Clearly, it is an interesting issue. There is no such thing as zero emissions. It is all relative. We end up with lower emissions. If we generated electricity through renewable means, it would be close to zero emissions but the steel produced to make the wind turbines would still generate some emissions. Getting to zero emissions is quite difficult. If we could achieve that, it would be quite a feat for humanity. Lower emissions is what we would get.

The Deputy mentioned the issue of the emissions scandal. There are a variety of issues around this. It is not only that there was software used to hide the emissions that were coming out. We know that in typical driving conditions the vehicles are not achieving anything close to the stated manufacturers' emissions. We know from international evidence that the gap between the theoretical emissions that are produced in a laboratory and the emissions achieved with standard driving has been increasing. It also varies systematically by manufacturer. There is evidence to that effect. The fact that gap has been increasing is quite important. It is ultimately a matter for the EU which sets the standards, including the way those tests are generated. That needs to be addressed at EU level so that we do not end up with theoretical laboratory condition emissions and fuel consumption values. Many consumers tend to focus on the fuel consumption of the vehicle. They buy the vehicle and end up finding that the fuel consumption is 20%, 30% or 40% higher in practice. That is also not satisfactory from a consumer protection perspective. That is something that the European Commission certainly needs to deal with.