Revision of the EU green public procurement criteria for transport : technical report and criteria proposal

Public authorities' expenditures in the purchase of goods, services and works (excluding utilities and defence) constitute approximately 14% of the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Europe, accounting for roughly EUR 1.8 trillion annually. Thus, public procurement has the potential to provide significant leverage in seeking to influence the market and to achieve environmental improvements in the public sector. This effect can be particularly significant for goods, services and works (referred to collectively as products) that account for a high share of public purchasing combined with the substantial improvement potential for environmental performance. The European Commission has identified (road) transport as one such product group. Road transport covers a wide scope of vehicles (cars, LCVs, L-category vehicles, buses and waste collection vehicles) and services (mobility services, public bus services, waste collection services and post and courier services). The main environmental issues at the use phase addressed by the criteria are GHG emissions, air pollutant emissions and noise emissions. The impacts from the manufacture of batteries used in electric vehicle are also considered, leading to criteria on minimum and extended warranty of batteries. This revision has coincided with the evaluation of the Clean Vehicle Directive and the introduction of new test procedures to measure CO₂ and air pollutant emissions of vehicles (WLTP, Real Driving Emissions in Euro 6). All these policies have been taken into account in the revision process of the EU GPP criteria for transport, to ensure a full harmonisation of the EU policies.