Auto Association president Andris Kulbergs points out that slogans about railway electrification and the "greening" of public transport to meet climate targets are populist and do not stand up to scrutiny, as, for instance, railways make up only 4% of the transport sector, while light vehicles account for 86% of the road transport sector. Meanwhile, the Latvian vehicle fleet, with an average age of 15 years, is one of the oldest in Europe.

Furthermore, other countries, whilst transitioning to greener modes of transport, are flooding Latvia with their used diesels. They already make up 67% of the local vehicle fleet, and around 85% of newly imported cars are of this type. Thus, the association estimates that by doing nothing, not only will it be impossible to reduce emissions, but they will actually increase. If nothing changes, the volume of emissions in the road transport sector could even rise by more than 8.4% by 2027, rather than decrease.

Alda Ozola, Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM), acknowledges that reducing emissions is binding for Latvia and the transport sector is indeed one of those where the greatest reductions should be achieved. "If Latvia as a whole cannot meet these emission targets – which are already set on an annual basis – then there are two options. Either another sector does more, such as agriculture, but that is also unlikely, or we have to buy the missing emission quotas from another member state, or there is an option to borrow from future years, but that is not a very sensible or sustainable solution, much like with a budget. In fact, those emission quotas are also money, and they have quite a significant value," explains A. Ozola.