Results from the European carbon labelling initiative CO2 Star

Abstract

Today, passenger cars alone are responsible for around 12% of European CO 2 emissions. An opportunity to reduce CO 2 emissions in transport is provided by the use of biofuels with beneficial life cycle CO 2 emissions. The Carbon Labelling project (Project No. EIE/06/015) promotes the use of biofuels by implementing different labelling initiatives in Europe and applying the developed carbon label "CO 2Star" to biodiesel, efficient lubricants and biofuel based freight services. In a first step a supportable methodology for the quantification of carbon life cycle reductions was identified in co-operation with recent and on-going activities and methodologies by European and worldwide expert groups such as SenterNovem (NL), ifeu Institute (DE) and Imperial College (UK). In a second step the Carbon Labelling initiative actively promoted this carbon reduction to consumers. Finally, a consumer survey was conducted in order to assess the success of this initiative and the acceptance of GHG labels. This paper gives an overview about the current discussion on carbon reductions in the transport sector, different GHG calculation methodologies, and about the results of the 'Carbon Labelling' project which is supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.