The European Commission is putting new pressure on vehicle manufacturers to clean up vehicle emissions.

Yesterday adopted a Green Paper on energy efficiency, outlining a programme with the objective of harnessing cost-effective energy savings for Europe equivalent to 20% of the EU’s current energy use.

This means reducing the amount the EU spends on energy by €60bn (£39.8bn) a year or the present combined energy consumption of Germany and Finland.

The Green Paper mentions the recently launched CARS 21 Commission’s potential to catalyse a new generation of more fuel-efficient vehicles as one of a wide range of energy-saving initiatives.

The paper also suggests that current vehicle emissions and fuel economy policies will be reviewed afresh: “A major challenge is to ensure that the vehicle industry produces ever more energy efficient vehicles.

How can this best be done? What measures should be taken to continue to improve energy efficiency in vehicles and at which level? To what extent should such measures be voluntary in nature and to what extent mandatory?”