Boycott of BMW

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Boycott Title

Boycott BMW that killed the EU's CO2 limitation deal

Boycott Description

European Union environment ministers agreed on Monday to German demands to scrap an agreement to cap EU car emissions to limit average new car emissions to 95g CO2 per km from 2020 after months of forceful lobbying from Germany's BMW. 

Environment campaigners say Germany is abusing the EU's democratic process, throwing away the chance to make European cars more energy efficient and to reduce the bloc's dependency on oil imports. 

Germany has exerted massive pressure on other European countries particularly those with significant German-owned car-manufacturing facilities to support its position. Germany managed to get the support of other EU ministers on Monday, but many member states have voiced unease at the manner in which Berlin blocked the deal. 

According to the latest annual report by T&E, four car manufacturers have already achieved the 130g CO2/km limit for 2015 and most of them are well on track to meet the 95g target for 2020.

The President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, is very clear in its foreword of its “Turn down the heat” report, an assessment prepared for the World Bank of the health, social and environmantal impact of climate change induced by a global warming of 4°C (If action are not fully implemented, a warming of 4°C could occur as early as the 2060s):  The lack of action on climate change not only risks putting prosperity out of reach of millions of people in the developing world, it threatens to roll back decades of sustainable development.  The scenarios evaluating the consequences of an increase of the global earth temperature of 4°C are indeed devastating:

• the inundation of coastal cities;
• increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer, wet regions wetter;
• unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics;
• substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions;
• increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones;
• irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.

Boycott Demands

1. BMW should state that it agrees with the EU regulation limiting average new car emissions to 95g CO2 per km from 2020.

2. This must result in Germany stopping its lobbying against the above regulation, and in its implementation in all member states.