In a first, EU to review emissions to heavy-duty vehicles

March 27 (UPI) -- In a first for the bloc, the European Parliament made a provisional agreement to monitor emissions and fuel consumption from heavy-duty vehicles.

The European body said it would work on agreements to monitor emissions of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, and consumption from trucks, buses and coaches. It's the first effort ever made in the European Union for those type of vehicles.

Miguel Arias Cañete, the European commissioner for climate action, said the agreement shows that EU member states are committed to low-carbon efforts.

"With this new robust, reliable and transparent monitoring and reporting system, we are on track for the next step: CO2 emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles to be proposed in May 2018," he said in a statement.

The International Energy Agency expects the sale of electric vehicles will quadruple by 2020, though cost remains a prohibiting factor to further deployment. Based on 2016 figures, however, they make up 0.2 percent of the total market.

The agency added that, if no improvements are made to the global fleet of heavy trucks, oil demand from the sector will account for about 40 percent of the projected 2050 total demand growth.

Last week, the European Commission considered ways to reform its financial system to align more closely with EU climate efforts and the Paris climate deal.

Among the measures on the agenda is a call to establish a common classification system to determine what constitutes sustainable finance and where it can make the most impact. Elsewhere, the commission is working to determine a labeling system to identify green financial products so that investors can more easily comply with the low-carbon agenda.