Europe promotes polluting trucks
A good two years ago, a study by the Dutch government concluded that LPG offers few advantages compared to diesel. Back then, the European environmental organisation Transport & Environment (T&E) was already calling for a rethink. Now a second study has come out.
The second study by the Graz University of Technology substantiates the findings of the first one: the promotion of gas-powered trucks should be abandoned immediately, as they are just as dirty as diesel trucks. In terms of emissions of carcinogenic fine dust and ultra-fine dust, gas trucks even perform worse. Only on the motorway, i.e. where the speed is higher than in normal city traffic, does LPG show that it emits fewer particles into the environment. Gas-powered trucks contribute 13.4 percent more to global warming when looking at emissions over a 20-year period. The environmental balance will only improve after a long 100 years. Only then does the ratio reverse and diesel exceeds the pollutant emissions of diesel by 7.5 percent. But what truck is driven for 100 years?
Liquefied petroleum gas can show somewhat better values if you look at the amount of nitrogen oxides emitted. But the difference here is not so great. Nevertheless, liquefied petroleum gas does not completely eliminate pollutants in the air. Therefore, LPG can never be a real alternative to emission-free forms of propulsion.
T&E appeals to the EU to put the promotion of LPG and the development of a corresponding infrastructure on the back burner and concentrate more on support and infrastructure for battery-powered e-trucks. Only then can the ambitious climate targets be achieved.
The findings of the study would then also have to lead to a rethinking of the environmental zones and the classification of environmental badges. In France, for example, gas-powered vehicles receive a purple sticker 1 - the second best - and new diesel vehicles only a yellow sticker 2, even though they are dirtier. Will the study soon mean that only electric vehicles will be allowed to enter the European environmental zones?