BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Parliament on Wednesday threw its weight behind a proposed ban on the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines in 2035, seeking to step up the fight against climate change through faster development of electric vehicles.
The Assembly of the European Union voted in Strasbourg, France, to require carmakers to reduce their carbon emissions by 100% by the middle of the next decade. The mandate would be a ban on the sale of new petrol or diesel cars in the 27-member bloc.
EU lawmakers have also approved a 55% reduction in CO2 from cars in 2030 compared to 2021. This move deepens the existing obligation of the car industry to reduce CO2 emissions by an average of 37.5% at the end of the decade compared to last year. .
Environmentalists welcomed the parliament’s decisions. The Brussels-based Transport and Environment Alliance said the vote offered a “battle chance to prevent unexpected climate change”.
But the lobbying group of the German car industry, VDA, criticized the vote, saying it ignored the lack of charging infrastructure in Europe. The group also said the vote was a “solution against innovation and technology”, citing the industry’s demands for synthetic fuels to be released from the ban, which European lawmakers rejected.
If approved by EU countries, the 2035 deadline will be particularly difficult for German carmakers, which have focused on powerful and expensive vehicles with internal combustion engines while lagging behind foreign competitors when it comes to electric cars.
The 2030 target for CO2 reduction and a ban on internal combustion engines in 2035 was proposed last year by the European Commission, the EU’s executive unit. Cars account for about 12% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, which are to blame for increasing and intense heat waves, storms and floods related to climate change.
EU governments must hand down their sentences in the coming weeks or months before the final EU agreement on tougher car emissions requirements is approved.
The car law is being carefully considered as part of a package of EU climate bills covering a number of other polluting industries.
The EU plans to reduce greenhouse gases by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990, not just the pre-agreed 40% over the period.
Most of the cuts will come from power plants and factories. These two sectors, unlike cars, have limited greenhouse gases in the EU through the European Emissions Trading System, which reduces the overall supply of the necessary pollution permits each year.
Earlier on Wednesday, the EU parliament failed to move this part of the climate package due to a split pace at which the free distribution of some emission permits – as opposed to auctioning – must be suspended.
The Assembly requested its Committee on the Environment to resume discussions on the matter. As a result, the European Parliament has also delayed its decisions on two related initiatives.
One is the creation of a social climate fund to help vulnerable households cope with planned clean energy renewals, an issue that has become more politically sensitive as Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to soaring fuel prices. .
The second is an unprecedented import tax known as the Carbon Border Correction Mechanism. The planned CBAM is the first instrument of its kind that will allow the EU to raise the prices of some imported goods – including steel and aluminum – which have been saved from climate protection costs facing bloc-based producers.
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