Skip to main content

Ger­many threatens to block EU com­bus­tion engine ban.

 

German flag
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.

www.sba.tax

Labels:

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

Post a Comment

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

  The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...
Post a Comment
Read more

EU business slide.

  S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...
1 comment
Read more

Tariffs on UK electric cars.

  The European Commission has confirmed that it will continue with its plan to impose tariffs on electric cars exported between the UK and EU starting next year. This is due to the "rules of origin" requirement that mandates EVs traded across the English Channel to have 60% of their battery and 45% of their parts sourced from the EU or UK or face a 10% tariff. A senior Commission official, Richard Szostak, recently informed parliamentarians from the UK and EU that the bloc's battery investment has significantly declined, making the tariffs necessary to encourage domestic production. In 2022, the EU's share of global investment in battery production shrank from 41% to only 2% after the US offered substantial subsidies through its Inflation Reduction Act. Starting in 2024, car manufacturers in the UK will need to have 22% of their sales come from zero-emission vehicles, which means they may need to import EVs from the continent to meet this requirement. If EU carmakers ...
Post a Comment
Read more