BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission on Thursday published draft law to reduce emissions from non-road engines as part of efforts to clean up the air and improve human health.
The law would cover anything from lawn mowers to snowmobiles to diesel locomotives.
The Commission has already introduced the world's toughest law on the fuel efficiency of cars to lower emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
But the rules for non-road mobile machinery, as the EU regulators refer to it, are erratic and out of date.
Mostly powered by diesel, this machinery emits the same kind of pollutants as diesel car engines, including nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which can enter the lungs and bloodstream and have been linked to heart disease, cancer and breathing difficulties as well as environmental damage.
The EU executive Commission says non-road mobile machinery is responsible for roughly 15 percent of the nitrogen oxide and 5.0 percent of the particulate matter emissions in the European Union. Near building sites, the levels of emissions can be higher.
It says the aim of the proposed legislation, which will have to be debated by the European Parliament and the 28 EU member states before it can become law, is to reduce progressively emissions from new engines brought on to the market and replace the old, more polluting ones over time.
Environmental campaigners said the law as proposed could fail to curb some of the most polluting non-road engines and lacked rigorous targets and they urged the European Parliament and EU nations to call for a tougher approach.
"We urge the Parliament and member states to require big diesel machines and locomotives to fit particulate filters to drive out the invisible killer in our cities," Francois Cuenot, air pollution officer at campaign group Transport & Environment, said.
(Reporting by Barbara Lewis)
