Climate change, the EU announces ambitious measures: stop to petrol and diesel cars from 2035
The European Union has announced a series of ambitious proposals on climate change, to achieve zero net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050.
The package of measures, with which the EU intends to reach its target of reducing emissions by 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, includes a proposal that would effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2035, imposing limits more stringent for emissions.
“By acting now we can do things in another way,” the president of the European Commission said today Ursula von der Leyen, speaking of a “generational task”, that of guaranteeing “the well-being not only of our generation, but also of our children and grandchildren. Europe is ready to lead ”.
The reduction of a further 31 percent of emissions by 2030, after the 24 percent drop recorded from 1990 to 2019, is considered necessary to be able to hope to zero net CO2 emissions by 2050, reaching the so-called “carbon neutrality” .
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The proposals announced today by the European Commission include an increase in fuel taxation for aircraft, accompanied by a 10-year exemption for low-carbon alternatives, incentives for the energy renovation of buildings and a “compensation mechanism” that could be the subject of trade disputes with other countries. This Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) would require importers of iron, steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizers and electricity to pay the CO2 cost they would have incurred if the goods were produced in the EU.
The European Commission has also announced a reform of the CO2 permit system. In the EU, these can be traded on a special market established in 2005, the Emissions Trading System (Ets), which should also cover the shipping sector.
Emissions from road transport and heating systems in buildings will instead become part of a separate ETS market. In this case, the proceeds will end up in a climate fund with an estimated value of 72 billion euros, with which the EU could co-finance national incentive schemes for the purchase of zero-emission cars and the energy requalification of buildings.
Before being approved by the EU member states and the European parliament, the proposals will be the subject of negotiations that will probably last for months. In addition to meeting the opposition of the economic sectors involved, the measures could also have wider political repercussions, as already happened in France with the protests against the increase in excise duties on petrol, which in 2018 gave rise to the movement of yellow vests.