Automakers still not doing enough to cut CO2, says whistleblower

European automakers are still not doing enough to cut carbon gas emissions, the non-governmental organisation that blew the whistle on the pollution-cheating scandal at Volkswagen complained on Wednesday.

Five months after exposing the German auto giant for installing so-called defeat devices in its diesel engines, the International Council on Clean Transportation said the sector as a whole was still lagging in its efforts to curb pollution.

And Europe's attempts to regulate in this area were too timid, ICCT said.

The VW scandal was "an extreme case, but higher emissions are the norm" in the automobile sector, said Vicente Franco, of ICCT's Berlin office.

"No manufacturer is perfect."

It was ICCT which uncovered the "dieselgate" scam in September, sending shockwaves around the automobile sector all over the world and drove VW into its deepest-ever crisis.

The German group deliberately installed the devices into 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with the aim of getting around emissions regulations, notably in the United States.

While the scandal had raised awareness of the subject, automakers had "come up with answers that point towards loopholes in regulation rather than technical answers," Franco said.

"Regulatory proposals for RDE (real diesel emissions) recently are an improvement, a step in the right direction, but insufficient," he said.

Franco was speaking at a round-table discussion on the VW scandal organised by the environmentalist Green party in German parliament.