The German government announced on Tuesday that it would not support the European Union’s (EU) ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars from 2035, after it was not guaranteed an exemption for synthetic fuels.
Last year, EU member states reached a preliminary agreement that forces car manufacturers to reduce emissions from new cars by 55% in 2030 compared to 2021 levels and by 100% in 2035.
The plan, which is part of the community bloc’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, effectively bans the sale of new cars that run on hydrocarbon-based fuels, such as petroleum, the Associated Press news agency reported. .
Some countries, such as Germany, have asked the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, to make an exception for cars that run on so-called e-fuels. [combustíveis sintéticos, em português]arguing that these can be produced using renewable energy and carbon from the air, preventing more climate-changing emissions from being released into the atmosphere.
Germany’s Transport Minister Volker Wissing said on Tuesday that the European Commission has not made a proposal and that Germany will therefore refrain from supporting the ban being prepared by the EU.
Volker Wissing stressed that synthetic fuels must be produced in large quantities as soon as possible to meet the demand for cars sold before 2035, as well as trucks, ships and planes.
“The EU Commission should propose a regulation that would allow combustion engines to be registered after 2035, if they can only run on synthetic fuels”defended the German minister in statements to journalists in Berlin.
This issue has led to an ideological division within the government between Wissing’s Liberal Democratic Party and the environmentalist Green Party, which supports a total ban on internal combustion engines.
Germany’s main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has also opposed an EU-wide ban on internal combustion engine vehicles, warning it would harm the country’s valuable car industry.
Critics say that battery-electric technology is better suited to light cars and that costly synthetic fuels should only be used when no other option is possible, such as in aviation.
Benjamin Stephan of Greenpeace said studies show that the same amount of electricity will take a battery-powered vehicle five times further than a car running on synthetic fuel.
“This inefficient and expensive fuel will not matter to cars in 2035, certainly not to new cars”he defended, adding that it would be better for the German car industry to invest in electric vehicles.
Source: DN
