EU Parliament supports the ban on fossil-fuel cars

The EU Parliament voted yesterday on eight climate protection laws that will address the renewable energy targets, the aviation sector, pollution control as well as how forests management and vehicles.

The mandate to make all new cars and vans emissions-free from 2035 is technically a ban on combustion engines for personal and small business transport. The Parliament voted overwhelmingly for the new legislation and dismissed proposals from the European People’s Party to water it down to 90% reduction. At the same time a target of 55% reduction in CO2 emissions from all vehicles by 2030 has been approved as well.

The European People's Party was arguing that this new legislation relies purely on electric vehicles without allowing for development of synthetic fuels. Thankfully the parliamentarians saw through the lobbying games and dismissed the attempt outright.

Jens Gieseke, who was representing the EPP tried even using outdated arguments that charging electric cars with electricity produced from fossil fuels was not reducing any emissions. Clearly he must have missed the memo that the EU is well on the target with renewable energy (currently at over 22%) to represent at least 32% of entire production by 2030 with many countries already exceeding the future target.

Many politicians agreed that the electric cars form only a part of the solution, with a lower number of cars altogether being a more desirable outcome. Public transport is touted as an answer to many problems but it will only work in the cities with rural areas relying on individual transport - clearly, a lot of work is still ahead. Now the new proposal will be discussed by the 27 members of the EU and if all agree it will become a law.

The second part of voting came as a bit of surprise - the Parliament meant to vote on changing the cap for CO2 trading. Heavy industry in the EU is forced to buy CO2 credits to compensate for pollution and the cap on such trading was to be reduced over time thus forcing the companies to introduce new solutions and lower their emissions.

The proposal was initially to reduce the cap by 67% below the 2005 levels but it was deemed too ambitious and policymakers agreed on 61% reduction instead. Surprisingly parliamentarians from far-right, Green Party and Socialists voted against the proposal as it was deemed too weak. As a result the EU is stuck with the previous target of 43% reduction in CO2 trading cap which simply makes no sense.

There is no longer a time to argue about emissions reduction, there is no doubt that climate change is accelerating drastically and the window to avert the changes has closed. We are looking at managing the changes the best we can and while some actions are being taken quickly, others are just being approached as if it was a friendly football game between neighbors. Every summer is hotter than the last, every winter is colder than the last - while countries run out of water and food and suffer the consequences of dramatic weather changes, politicians plan tactical voting and discuss lobbying deals in their air-conditioned halls.

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