It’s official: EU strictly bans the sale of cars emitting CO2 from 2035

While the energy ministers of the EU countries adopted the law with 23 votes in favor, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy abstained, while Poland voted against it. Germany voted in favor after the European Commission and Berlin reached an agreement this weekend.

Legislation also provides as an interim step, reduce car emissions by 55% by 2030 50% compared to 2021 levels and minibuses on the same date.

It does not “change the text agreed with the European Parliament”, but “provides details on the next steps in the implementation of the regulation”. include synthetic fuels or “e-fuels” To the community regulations, Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson summarized.

These artificial fuels – and currently very expensive – are produced from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide and are in theory climate neutral. because they only emit CO2 that was captured earlier and can be used in vehicles with internal combustion engines even though they are not yet at that stage of development.

At the request of Germany and Italy, “e-fuels” had already been mentioned in the negotiation text, but the Commission gave itself until 2026 to return to the issue and allow this technology to develop in that time frame.

New cars should have zero emissions agencies

However, in a formal process of final approval of regulations in early March, Berlin paralyzed the law because liberals from the FDP, the third party in the German governing coalition, demanded greater clarity on electric fuels.

The maneuver was disliked in Brussels or by most Member States, but To please Germany it was necessary to force a negotiation.It is the first economic powerhouse and the first automaker in the EU, and it saves a key piece of the EU’s climate policy to decarbonize the community’s economy.

The Commission, in collaboration with the Motor Vehicles Technical Committee, has included a political statement in which it is committed to presenting a “solid and avoidance-proof” regulation for the approval of such vehicles.

Community Manager In the “fall of 2023” it will introduce a piece of legislation (delegated law) that “specifies how ‘e-fuel’ vehicles will contribute to emissions reduction targets”. CO2″ in relation to the regulation of CO2 emission standards for passenger cars and light vehicles.

This will be followed in 2026 by a bill on “e-fuels” as stated in the text from the beginning.

Compared to a car with an existing internal combustion engine, the engine was unchanged, but the electronicso that, similar to cars that don’t start when the driver drinks too much alcohol, the car refuses to start when the tank is filled with conventional fuel.

Electric cars will be real heroes agencies

Final deal allows implementation of an essential part of EU climate policy in the transition to a decarbonised economy after a maneuver that neither the Commission nor many EU countries like.

Biofuels not allowed

The deal excludes biofuels (derived from plant biomass) as they will always have a carbon footprint. It was derived from agricultural practices, a comment Italy found “too restrictive”, so it asked the Commission to include biofuels on the legal path to find a place for synthetic fuels.

European legislation, however, is directed towards electric motor and hydrogen fuel cells as they are currently the only scalable technologies.

For this reason and in parallel, the European Council and the Parliament have agreed on charging infrastructure that will oblige countries to charge. charging points for electric vehicles at least every 60 kilometers -and every 120 kilometers for trucks- plus hydrogen stations (hydrogens) every 200 kilometers.

The direction is clear: by 2035 new cars and trucks should have zero emissions. “It makes a major contribution to climate neutrality by 2050 and is an important part of the Green Deal,” said Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s Vice-President for climate policy, after the law was approved.

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