“However, I think that this regulation, like many European Union documents, is just not going to get there and won’t come out, but it will greatly disrupt the market, which will look for all sorts of solutions – and very expensive solutions against that,” Anna Zalewska tells the wPolityce.pl portal former Minister of National Education, currently PiS MEP.
wPolityce.pl: Will the ban on combustion cars become a reality in 2035?
Anna Zalewska: There have been a lot of emotions in recent weeks because, on the one hand, the regulation on electric cars was passed with joy, albeit not with such a large number of votes, which states that from 2035 we will no longer produce or register new combustion cars Later, the Germans turned who joined Poland and Italy, ending in a tentative, debatable agreement. The Germans indicated that they are – in principle – in favor of this scheme, but they gave the European Commission the power to write down and soften this scheme through a delegated act – to supplement it with the so-called e-fuels.
These are very early stage fuels, ie based on hydrogen carbon dioxide, associated with carbon dioxide capture (this is generally a very new technology) and of course powered by renewable energy. Therefore, on the one hand, the possibility of other cars is allowed, but it clearly goes to the hand of the Germans. This shows how negotiations are done here. They have nothing to do with equality, solidarity, responsibility. They also have nothing to do with the treaties, because such rules do not respect competition, they do not respect the free market, where the citizen decides what to drive and what to fill up with fuel, depending on what he can afford.
However, I think that this regulation, like many other documents of the European Union, will just not come and will not come true, but it will greatly disrupt the market, which will look for all kinds of solutions – and very expensive ones. Batteries for electric cars are becoming more expensive because lithium, which is virtually non-existent in Europe, is becoming more expensive. Within 3 years, from $6 thousand per ton, the price rose to 81 thousand. $.
This is very interesting, because the proponents of moving away from combustion cars claim that the demand for electric cars will increase and then “electric cars” will become cheaper. However, anyone who is rather skeptical about this solution emphasizes that then hardly anyone can afford an electric car.
Certainly, few people will be able to afford an electric car, because it will not become cheaper, but will remain at the current price level or even become more expensive. All because the components for the electric battery are carbon, and therefore ETS-encumbered. The production of one ton of lithium is 15 tons of CO2.
Second, we are very dependent on external markets. Here the Chinese are dominant and suddenly Europe remembered that it would like to compete with the Chinese, and it is preparing all these climate regulations, including this regulation for electric cars, which – as we grimly joke in the environment committee – are only being prepared for China, because only this country will benefit from this money. In the corridors you hear a slightly malicious comment: “you can’t afford it, so stay at home, don’t move at all”.
And how to evaluate Germany’s attitude?
The Germans are playing their game and that is why they are so eager for a single state to be established under the strong leadership of Germany. This was not only said, but written by West German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when he signed his government’s coalition agreement.
Indeed, no one hides it anymore, and this is certainly how Germans imagine the European Union. However, the EU as such has nothing to do with solidarity, the free market or competitiveness.
Is this expansion of powers by the EU and the imposition of individual solutions on member states going further and further? Will Brussels impose on us what – and if at all – we have to drive?
And what should we eat… The opposition ridicules our concerns about “eating worms” when it all happens in individual documents.
Perhaps they are not directly related to the Fit for 55 package, but they are presented anyway. I’m talking about breeding restrictions. There was even an idea to classify the raising of cows, chickens and pigs as industrial emissions. When we add to this solutions related to carbon farming, where there will be an incentive to absorb carbon dioxide, store it or subordinate part of their land to various “green” solutions, the farmer will be forced not to to focus on cultivating the land, but on responsibility for food, in agriculture, but to allocate land to all kinds of European Union ideas. The European Commission will of course be willing to pay for this, so this funding will be an incentive.
It is also worth mentioning the document “REPowerEU”, which was produced shortly after Russia’s large-scale attack on Ukraine and assumes the transition from gas to heat pumps, wind farms and renewable energy in general. Under the motto of limiting and becoming independent of Russian hydrocarbons, the goal is to turn such investments into public investments.
Therefore, they will also be able to set up various installations on private land, without asking the farmer, without asking the owner. Of course, they will pay a fee, but it will be disproportionate to the profit they will get.
With all this “ecological”, “climate” increase and subsequent ideas for reducing carbon dioxide, does the European Union also care about environmental pollution caused by Russian bombs and missiles? Not to mention the fact that Ukrainian children, adults and the elderly are dying from it, but what Putin’s army shoots into Ukraine also has an impact on the environment. Are there reflections in this direction among EU officials?
There is no such reflection. Not only that, when it comes to war, on the one hand – what we are striving for – there are sanctions, shifting the economy, supporting Ukraine, and on the other hand – environmental solutions that are absolutely uncountable and uncountable (because pandemic and war are not included here at all – the first projects of these solutions were usually created before the pandemic and the war). The Russian attack on Ukraine is used in Brussels to make it even faster, even stronger. The word “war” is also inflected in all cases when someone protests and says that something is impossible, countless, that it is just “green hoax”, “greenwashing”.
Because all these products, including with renewable energy, depend on external markets outside the European Union, secondly – very expensive, thirdly – they are completely based on coal. In other words, their production is one big release of carbon dioxide.
Where will these double standards of EU officials lead Europe and Europeans?
As far as Europeans are concerned, I think it will be a matter of the next 2-3 years before these solutions, if not abandoned, will hit citizens directly, and specifically – in their pockets. All this responsibility is shifted to the citizens. Global companies that make money from it win. These are facilities that will lead to a huge social stratification, and at the same time they build such a financial pyramid. ETS is actually starting to touch every area of human life – today it goes so into the forests – agriculture. It is already designed in ETS 2 – tax on extra costs for fuel used to fill up the car or what we use to heat or cool our own flats or houses. The only hope is simply with the citizens – not only of Poland or the Czech Republic, but also of Germany and France, because they simply cannot bear these burdens.
Thank you very much for the interview.
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Size: Joanna Jaszczuk
Source: wPolityce