The EU environment ministers decide on the end of combustion engines from 2035. There is resistance, but for the time being it is not strong enough. Berlin’s traffic light is at odds to the end.
When difficult structural reforms and emotions mix, things get complicated in the EU. Nevertheless, the French Council Presidency wants to fix the end for the internal combustion engine on Tuesday. Some EU environment ministers will try to water down the proposal of the EU Commission and the EU Parliament. But there is hardly any way around the end from 2035 – also because the facts speak for it.
If the EU wants to stick to its climate goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050, internal combustion engines for cars and light trucks must be phased out. According to the EU Environment Agency, transport was responsible for around a quarter of the EU’s total CO2 emissions in 2019. Road traffic accounted for 71.7 percent of this.