Yesterday, the European Union (EU) voted to support the ban of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars by 2035 to clean up road transport. The vote, which took place in Strasbourg, France, saw 339 in favour of this, with 249 against and 24 abstaining.
This upholds the EU’s plans to cut all emissions by 55 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels. A big portion of this would come from factories and power plants but cars remain significant within all of this.
The new proposal would ban the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles across the 27 nations of the EU. The EU lawmakers also endorsed a 55 percent reduction in CO2 created by cars by 2030 compared to 2021.
The aim of this ban is to speed up the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe and push carmakers to invest further in electrification. This will be supported by another EU law that countries will be required to invest heavily in infrastructure to support this.
Cars are currently responsible for around 12 percent of greenhouse gases in Europe. These are believed to be responsible for the increase in floods, heatwaves and storms in recent years. This change is a positive step, although some would argue this isn’t soon enough.
The law is not yet final and the governments of all the EU member nations will need to give their verdicts over the coming weeks before a final EU agreement is approved.
