EU Parliament votes for tougher CO2 limits
The EU Parliament has declared war on CO2 emissions in transportation with new limits. From 2030 the CO2 emissions limit for new cars is to be on average 40 percent lower than for 2021. Negotiations with the EU Commission and the member states are next on the agenda. Is the Parliament jeopardising the future of Europe's automotive industry with its decision?
Don't overstrain the carmakers
The Stuttgarter Zeitung criticises the EU Parliament's CO2 targets as too ambitious:
“Parliament can't simply order a transition to renewable energies in the transportation sector. It has to be lived. ... When the two legislating entities in the EU, the Parliament and the member states, start negotiating CO2 targets for the period up to 2030 in the near future, they must proceed with a sense of proportion. The manufacturers must receive massive support. Ambitious targets will help Europe's car industry, and specifically German manufacturers, to take the lead in the electric car segment and technology. But the targets must be realistic. Adventurous goals like a punitive tax must be countered. The industry is important for creation of value and jobs in many regions.”
Czech car industry will suffer
Právo is critical about the new limits:
“Carmakers based in the Czech Republic have warned that the tighter limits could have dramatic consequences: from jobs being axed and slowing down economic growth to losses billions of euros state revenue. We are damaging the car industry on which 400,000 jobs depend without helping the environment - that's what the automotive sector is saying. And the idea that with more electric cars there will be no new emissions is wrong. Their massive entry onto the markets will result in higher energy production.”
Urban politicians not worried about climate change
With an eye to the opening of the Paris Motor Show, economist Bernard Jullien explains in Atlantico why politicians are demanding more electric cars:
“The harmful emissions that were the crux of the diesel affair have a major impact on local pollution. From that point of view, electric cars are of course attractive. Because even if we produce the electricity using fossil fuels, that would take place far from the big cities. ... Powerful politicians tend to live in the city, they have children and want as little asthma as possible, so they are demanding that diesel be banned. But the question of the extent to which the different methods of generating energy influence global warming is one they don't necessarily ask.”