EU lawmakers endorse ban on new petrol and diesel cars from 2035
The European Parliament on Wednesday threw its weight behind a proposed ban on selling new cars with combustion engines in 2035, seeking to step up the fight against climate change by boosting the development of electric vehicles.
The European Union assembly voted in Strasbourg, France, to require automakers to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 100 per cent by the middle of the next decade. The mandate would amount to a prohibition on the sale in the 27-nation bloc of new cars powered by gasoline or diesel.
Attempts by some lawmakers to weaken the target to a 90 per cent cut in CO₂ emissions by 2035 were rejected.
EU lawmakers also endorsed a 55 per cent reduction in CO₂ from vehicles in 2030 compared with 2021. The move strengthens an existing obligation on the car industry to lower CO₂ discharges by 37.5 per cent on average at the end of the decade compared to last year.
"Purchasing and driving zero-emission cars will become cheaper for consumers," said Jan Huitema, the European Parliament's lead negotiator on the policy.
Environmentalists hailed the parliament's decisions. Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based alliance, said the vote offered "a fighting chance of averting runaway climate change".
But Germany's auto industry lobby group VDA criticised the vote, saying it ignored the lack of charging infrastructure in Europe.
The group also said the vote was "a decision against innovation and technology" - a reference to demands from the industry that synthetic fuels be exempt from the ban, which European lawmakers rejected.
The governments of EU member states will need to give their verdicts in the coming weeks or months before a final agreement on the tougher car emission requirements is approved.
If approved by EU nations,
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