The European Union’s efforts to promote the switch to electric cars face a fresh attack.
The Parliament’s lead negotiator for CO2 emissions standards reform, Massimiliano Salini, is set to push for an even greater rollback of an incoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel models.
The EU had agreed that only zero-emissions cars could be marketed from 2035. But under pressure from the automotive sector and capitals like Berlin and Rome, the European Commission proposed in December that a 90% reduction in average emissions would suffice, provided carmakers use cleanly produced steel and renewable fuels – scrapping what amounts to an internal combustion engine ban.
But Salini – vice-chair of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) – wants to cancel this conditionality, according to a draft report on the reform proposal that was leaked to the press and widely circulated on Monday. Moreover, the Italian lawmaker would then allow carmakers to cover up to 17 percentage points of the remaining reduction target by using clean steel (7 points) and renewable fuels (10 points).
The net result could be a de facto lowering of the emission reduction goal to just 73%, surpassing even the demands of the main industry lobby active in Brussels.
Renewable fuels boost
In his draft report, seen by Euractiv, Salini appears keen to further incentivise the use of biofuels and synthetic alternatives to petrol and diesel known as e-fuels. Under his proposed amendments, vehicles running exclusively on these fuels would be treated as “zero-emission” models, just like battery-electric cars.
The rapporteur on the hotly debated proposal would also seek to ease compliance for producers of small, made-in-Europe electric cars, a category that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also wants to boost by allowing 1.5 cars instead of 1.3. This bonus would also be extended to small electric vans, allowing producers to bring even more conventional petrol or diesel models to market.
Salini would also support sales of plug-in hybrids by freezing a gradual tightening of their ‘utility factor’, an assumption about how much the driver will use the internal combustion engine, which critics say underestimates the overall climate impact of such vehicles.
The 2035 CO2 emission goal for vans would be lowered even further to 80% because, he argues, a 90% goal would be “overly stringent” and would “not reflect technological readiness nor market constraints”.
Criticism mounts
Green politicians and environmental campaigners immediately criticised Salini over the leaked report, arguing that his proposal would be unacceptable for the centrist majority of the European Parliament, comprising conservatives, liberals and social democrats.
“It’s very, very clear that socialists, Greens, but also big parts of Renew already have a problem with what the commission proposed,” the Green lawmaker Michael Bloss told reporters on Monday. “Watering this down even further – and … not by small margins, but big time – it’s basically asking to have a vote together with the far right.”
The office of Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, the Socialists & Democrats group’s lead negotiator on the file, declined to comment when contacted by Euractiv.
The campaign group Transport and Environment (T&E) implied that Salini’s timing was poor, given that Europe faces a fuel price shock.
“If this gets adopted, it will lock Europe into oil dependence for decades to come and jeopardise billions in investment in charging and battery factories,” T&E campaigner Lucien Mathieu said in a statement. “It is hard to imagine a centrist majority for this radical proposal.”
Salini’s proposals will be debated by the European Parliament’s environment committee for the first time on 2 June. It will be subject to amendment both in committee and at a full plenary, a process likely to last until at least November. That will eventually allow Salini and the shadow negotiators to enter talks with the Council of the EU, which represents national governments.
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