Emissions standards and free trade — the good, the bad and the ugly

The effectiveness of emissions monitoring has been brought into focus by two recent events: the VW emissions scandal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

VW is now suffering the consequences of greenwashing and is facing a total loss of reputation along with millions or even billions of dollars of fines and compensation payments.

You would have to have been hiding under a rock not to have heard how VW intentionally programmed its turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing. The programming caused the vehicles’ nitrogen oxide (NO_x) output to meet US standards during regulatory testing. However, under real-world driving this ‘defeat mechanism’ was not activated and the engines produced up to 40 times higher NO_x output. An estimated eleven million cars worldwide (including 91,000 in Australia) were involved. Compounding this, the engine was not only used in passenger and commercial VWs but also in Skodas, Audis, Porsches and SEATs.

While the scandal is new, VW’s practice of greenwashing is not — engines with the defeat mechanism have been on the market since 2009. So for at least seven years, VW has been able to circumvent emissions regulations all over the world. So the question that arises from this is: is VW the only one — who else is flouting national and international emission regulations?

It appears that all software-controlled machinery can be prone to ‘cheating’. One way to combat this could be to make the software source code accessible to the public. Dr Kamil Agi, CEO of SensorComm Technologies, believes that IoT smart emissions monitoring could be part of a solution to deter any other ‘VW-type’ situations. His company has developed a wireless IoT-based automotive sensor that measures NO_x emissions at extremely low levels (sub-ppm) with real-time measurement and cost-effective monitoring capabilities. The sensor can be tuned and manufactured for specific ranges enabling accurate NO_x measurement that facilitates compliance with current and future LEV III, TIER III and EURO 6 regulatory standards.

“The world is rapidly becoming IoT based with smartphones, smart homes and smart cars. A natural extension of this will be IoT smart emissions monitoring. Had this technology already been adopted by industry and regulators, it would have made Volkswagen’s effort to circumvent air pollution laws completely unnecessary,” said Agi.

Others argue the Internet of Things is not the answer and could be subject to internal and/or external calibration attacks.

However, in Australia, better equipment may still not be the answer due to our inefficient vehicle emissions standards compared to the world standards. For example, Australian new cars are far less efficient than those in South Korea, the European Union, Japan and China. Even the United States outperforms our standards.

The Turnbull government announced in November that it is implementing a Ministerial Forum that will examine vehicle emissions standards in Australia and vehicle testing arrangements. The forum will be supported by a working group that will be asked to examine issues including the implementation of Euro 6, fuel quality standards, fuel efficiency measures (CO₂) for light vehicles and emission testing arrangements. However, the group will not have its draft implementation plan report ready until March 2017.

The forum’s chair, Minister Paul Fletcher, said: “Presently we do not have the same levels of smog pollution in Australia that other countries face. Nevertheless, we must work hard to keep our air clean and reduce emissions that contribute to climate change by ensuring our new vehicles meet world’s best standards.”

Then enters the Trans-Pacific Partnership

The TPP trade accord, after many negotiations in relation to intellectual property rights provisions, reached agreement in October. The TPP is designed to lower trade barriers and set new rules for investment, labour rights and the environment for a total of 12 countries including: Australia, United States, Japan, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam.

Although, the Environment Chapter of the TPP is reported to be weak, with no mention of climate change, and encouraging rather than enforcing any regulation. However, it may have both positive and negative effects. On the negative side, it could slow down the development of unilateral environmental regulations, but on the positive side, it could force countries that are lagging behind in terms of the environment to catch up.

Blair King from the Huffington Post in Canada has argued in one of his recent articles that historically on the negative side for trade agreements it was: “... like the wolf in the story Little Red Riding Hood, the protectionism is dressed up to look like it is intended to enhance environmental performance but under the covers hide regulations intended to harm foreign competitors, often without improving environmental performance in the least.” He sites a recent example of the case with the Korean emissions standards which did nothing to improve emission characteristics of cars on Korean roads but did a wonderful job of stopping the export of North American autos to Korea.

Although the TPP won’t eliminate all trade barriers, it was reported in October 2015 that Australia’s free trade deal with Japan would mean the average price of a Japanese car will be between $750 and $1500 cheaper.

But Climate Works said: “There is actually an ongoing way for the government to ensure all Australian motorists purchasing new vehicles can save money and that is by introducing best practice vehicle emission standards within the next two years.

Most major economies in the world currently have vehicle emission standards in place but Australia has no standard, putting us in the company of Russia, Turkey, Iran and Brazil. As a result we are spending more on fuel than we should be.

Recent analysis by ClimateWorks, in conjunction with Rare Consulting, found the introduction of best practice standards would provide significant benefits for consumers while also enhancing Australia’s fuel security and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

“The free trade deal with Japan only delivers a one-off savings that occurs upon the purchase of a Japanese car, whereas the introduction of standards could save Australian motorists $850 to $1200 every year on fuel costs,” said ClimateWorks Australia Acting Head of Engagement Scott Ferraro.

But will the introduction of standards and regulations be enough? When you consider how easily and for how long a highly reputable German company like VW could dupe the world, are we are going to need more?

We need to be able to ensure that claims are authentic, reproducible and reflect real-world use. Essentially, we may need to measure emissions from raw data rather than interpretations based on the data.

Image credit: ©spectrumblue/Dollar Photo Club