The European Union memebrs said on Saturday
they had struck a deal after a dispute over the planned phaseout by 2035 of the
sale of cars using fossil fuels. A landmark deal to prohibit new sales fossil
fuel cars from 2035 is key to the bloc’s ambitious plan to become a
“climate-neutral” economy by 2050, with net zero green house gas emissions. But
in an unprecedented move earlier this month, leading car producer Germany tried to block the agreement at the last minute after it had already been approved
under the traditional EU legislative process.
Future use of fuels in
cars
Some EU members demanded that Brussels provide assurance
that the law would allow the sales of new cars with combustion engines that ran
on synthetic fuels, the focus of the breakthrough announced on Saturday. “We
have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of fuels in cars,” EU
environment commissioner Frans Timmermans said on Twitter. “We will work now on
getting the CO2-standarts for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible.”
German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said
on Twitter that vehichle with combustion engines could continue to be
registered after 2035 if they exclusively used fuels that were neutral in their
CO2 emissions. Weeks-long negotiations between the European Commission and
Germany to break the impasse centered on Berlin’s desire for a stronger
commitment on synthetic fuels than that presented in the initial text. The
synthetic fuel Germany wanted an exemption for are still under development and
produced using low-carbon electricity. The technology is unproven, but German
manufacturers hope it will lead to the extended use of combustion engines.
Environmental NGOs have disputed the value of
synthetic fuels in the automotive sector’s transition toward clean
energy-intensive. Some industry experts have expressed doubt over whether
vehicles powered by synthetic fuels can compete in a market against electric
cars that are expected to become cheaper overtime. Audi boss Markus Duesmann
told the Der Spiegel weekly that
synthetic fuels would “not play an important role in medium-term future of
passenger cars”, even if they prove to be helpful in the green transition.
Domestic politics at
play
Some observers saw domestic political
calculations behind Germany’s initial move to block the deal, which ruffeld the
feathers of some Berlin’s EU partners. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social
Democrats form a coalition government with the Greens and the liberal FDP
party, which initiated the move. The FDP, which has lost five regional
elections in a row, struggling in national polling and hoped to gain the
support of voters hostile to ban on combustion engines.
Mr Scholz was seen as acting to maintain the unity
of the coalition by aligning with the FDP position against the Greens. Fellow
major car manufacturer Italy, Poland and Hungary joined Germany in small
alliance against the combustion engine ban. The EU aims to reduce CO2 emissions
from new vehicles to zero, with the planned combustion engine plan effectively
imposing electric vehicles from the middle of the next decades. The industry
has anticipated the new EU rules by massively investing in electric vehicles in
recent years.
Source: www.jakartapost.com
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