FRENCH MINISTER SEGOLENE ROYAL LAUNCHES FULL INVESTIGATION ON VOLKSWAGEN FRAUD

USPA NEWS - Following revelations by the US Federal Agency of Environmental Protection (EPA) a serious fraud of the Volkswagen group on pollutant emissions of its vehicles, Segolene Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and the Energy, says she has launched a full investigation.

"I took the Federal Agency of Environmental Protection to obtain all relevant information, to assess the nature of fraud and the means used to detect it. I asked also to UTAC (Union Technique de l'Automobile, the Motorcycle and Cycle), technical service designated by the French government to the European Commission to carry out the approval tests on the one hand to approach the US Federal Agency of Environmental Protection to deepen fraud schemes, and secondly to make me proposals for action. I also asked national manufacturers to ensure that such acts have not been current in France ". Segolene Royal declared.

CONTEXT : Volkswagen admitted that 11 million of its vehicles worldwide were equipped with special effects software that allowed, when tested by the American certification body to detect these tests and simulate dangerous gas emissions, whose dioxide carbon and nitrous oxide (NO2). “Even before the world´s nations gather in Paris this December to settle on a global plan against climate change, the Obama administration has announced new guidelines that will, by 2030, reduce U.S. carbon emissions by nearly a third. Much of the improvement will come from cleaner power plants. That´s important, because one-third of all U.S. carbon emissions come from the generation of electricity. The new carbon-pollution standards mean there will be more renewable energy sources like solar and wind power and also more natural gas in America´s energy mix. US Diplomacy

It all started in 2013, when the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT), a nongovernmental organisation specialising in clean transport, decides to test the emissions of some diesel cars. It then expects to conclude that the vehicles sold in the US are less polluting than others, thanks to the benefits of US standards, harder than elsewhere. The ICCT, funded mainly by the ClimateWorks Foundation, another NGO engaged in the fight against global warming, and working with regional and national governments to promote public policies for clean transport, in the United States and Europe but also in China, India and Latin America. Dozens of scientists, engineers or PhDs leave the four corners of the planet to launch research and testing programs in Washington, San Francisco, Berlin and Beijing. Among their research programs: the air quality, fuel, electric cars or the environmental impact of the airline industry. The aim is to establish reports for national governments to promote public policies for clean transport, in the United States and Europe but also in China, India and Latin America. Source : AFP, Ministry fo Ecology, Le Monde, ICCT, US diplomacy