[Auto] The EU definitively prohibits selling cars that emit CO2 from 2035

[Draeno]

 

The European Union (EU) today definitively approved the law that will ban sales in community territory of all new cars and vans that emit CO2 from 2035, after weeks of last-minute tensions due to the surprise blockade in Germany.

The energy ministers of the EU countries approved the law with 23 votes in favour, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy abstaining and Poland voting against. Germany voted in favor, after the European Commission (EC) and Berlin reached an agreement this weekend.

"It does not change the text agreed with the European Parliament" but "provides details on the next steps in the application of the regulation" to incorporate synthetic fuels or "efuels" into community regulations, summarized the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson.

These are artificial fuels - and currently prohibitively expensive - that are produced from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide, but they are climate neutral because they only emit previously captured CO2 and can be used in vehicles with combustion engines.

The "efuels" were already mentioned in the negotiated text, at the request of Germany and Italy, but the Commission gave itself until 2026 to return to the issue and allow this technology to evolve in that period of time.

However, in a formal procedure in the final approval of the regulations at the beginning of March, Berlin paralyzed the adoption of the law because the third party of the German government coalition, the liberals of the FDP, demanded that more projections to electric fuels be closed. .

The maneuver was not liked in Brussels or by a large part of the Member States, but it was necessary to force a negotiation to satisfy Germany, the leading economic power in the EU and the leading car manufacturer, and save this law, which is a key piece of climate policy. of the EU to decarbonise the community economy in 2050.

The Commission added a political declaration -which is not legally binding- in which Brussels undertakes to present a "solid and evasion-proof" regulation for the approval of this type of vehicle, in collaboration with the Technical Committee for Motorized Vehicles.

The Community Executive will present "in autumn 2023" a piece of legislation -delegated act- that "specifies how vehicles with 'efuels' would contribute to the objectives of reducing CO2 emissions, in relation to the regulation of CO2 emission standards for passenger cars and light vehicles.

The agreement allows a key piece of EU climate policy to be carried out in the transition to a decarbonized economy after a maneuver that neither the Commission nor many of the EU countries liked. However, the future of the combustion engine will continue to be present in European debates, beyond "efuels". Italy considers that the interpretation adopted with respect to "efuels" is "very restrictive" and has asked the Commission to include biofuels (obtained from vegetable biomass) in the path it undertakes to find a place for synthetic fuels.

 

https://www.eltiempo.com/vida/medio-ambiente/la-ue-prohibe-definitivamente-vender-carros-que-emitan-co2-a-partir-de-2035-754181