To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average level of carbon dioxide emissions in grammes-per-kilometre was for (a) new and (b) all cars in (i) the UK and (ii) each other EU member state in each year since 1997.

Table 1 shows data on average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of new cars sold in the UK from 1997 to 2007.

Data on average new car carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from 1997 to 2000 comes from estimates by The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). From 2001, figures are based on new car emissions data collected by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and supplied to the European Commission for the purposes of monitoring progress towards the EU voluntary commitments on new car CO2 targets.

Data on average new car carbon dioxide emissions from 2000 to 2006 in most EU member states is available on the European Commission website at the following link:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/transport/co2/co2_monitoring.htm.

This data is reproduced in table 2 as follows:

There is no data available on average CO2 emissions of all cars in the UK since data on CO2 emissions of new vehicles was not routinely collected before 1997. Therefore, in order to estimate the average CO2 emissions of all cars, we would need to make assumptions about the CO2 emissions of cars sold before 1997 and how many of these vehicles are still on the road.

Our estimates suggest that average CO2 emissions from all cars, in the UK have fallen from around 190g/km in 2000 to around 180g/km in 2006.

For similar reasons to those aforementioned, no data are available on average CO2 emissions of all cars in other EU member states.