As part of a drive to combat global warming the European Commission has been preparing to propose legislation that restricts CO2 emissions from cars to an average of 120 grams per kilometer by 2012. (See: "Carbon Trading Catch-Up") Currently the average new car in Europe produces 160 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.
Members of the plant's incident team were called to deal with the situation as carbon dioxide was sprayed over the basket to ensure it did not catch fire.