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Ger­many threatens to block EU com­bus­tion engine ban.

 

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The Ger­man trans­port min­is­ter has threatened to block a core part of the EU’s green agenda, warn­ing that Ber­lin will not sup­port plans to ban new cars with com­bus­tion engines from 2035 unless Brus­sels exempts vehicles run­ning on syn­thetic fuels.

Volker Wiss­ing said engines that use «cli­mate friendly» e-fuels, such as e-meth­ane and e-ker­osene, «must be allowed on a per­man­ent basis».

The declar­a­tion comes days ahead of an EU vote on plans to force European car­makers to cut their mod­els’ car­bon emis­sions by 55 per cent between 2021 and 2030 and by 100 per cent in 2035.

The EU plan, pro­vi­sion­ally agreed by mem­ber states last year, in effect makes it impossible to sell new pet­rol or diesel vehicles from 2035. That has been highly pro­voc­at­ive in Ger­many, where hun­dreds of thou­sands of jobs could be affected by a ban on vehicles with com­bus­tion engines, which con­tain many more com­pon­ents and take more labour to con­struct, than elec­tric vehicles.

Frans Tim­mer­mans, the EU’s Green Deal com­mis­sioner, has been scep­tical of the envir­on­mental bene­fits of e-fuels, lead­ing to con­cerns in Ber­lin that the com­mis­sion will not allow for them when it reviews the legis­la­tion in 2025.

The text sup­posed to be con­firmed next week «hadn’t changed».

Ger­many agreed to the phaseout on con­di­tion that Brus­sels launched a review into whether cars that run on e-fuels could be per­mit­ted after 2035.

E-fuels are pro­duced using elec­tri­city from renew­able hydro­gen and other gases, so are often con­sidered «car­bon neut­ral». They are not widely avail­able and require vast amounts of renew­able energy to pro­duce. Cam­paign­ers say they can be almost as nox­ious as burn­ing fossil fuels and emit as many nitro­gen oxides as a pet­rol-powered engine.

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Comments

  1. Sebastian1 March 2023 at 14:22

    We need to test things out and see if indeed these new cars are as efficient and carbon neutral as some think. They could be or things could be much more complicated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carmen1 March 2023 at 15:48

      We clearly have to do something about the environmental crisis we are in but yes, we need to go in the correct direction, not do something even worse. How many resources does it take to create such a car and how much does it consume afterwards?

      Delete
  2. Eliza1 March 2023 at 16:43

    The EU wants certain things but in their hurry for change they might actually do a lot of harm to both people and the environment. Until we know with certainty that e-fuels are the way forward 100% we shouldn't force things.

    ReplyDelete

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