The legislators and member countries of the European Union fixed an agreement to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars and vans by 2035.
The pact EU negotiators sealed Thursday night is the first deal of the bloc’s “Fit for 55″ package, which the alliance’s executive committee set up to achieve the goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 55% over this decade.
Under the deal, car manufacturers will be required to reduce the emissions of new cars sold by 55% in 2030, compared to 2021, before reaching a 100% cut five years later. The European Parliament and member states must formally approve the agreement before it comes into effect.
The European Parliament said the deal is an indicator before the U.N’s annual climate change conference “that the EU is serious about adopting concrete laws to reach the more ambitious targets set out in the EU Climate Law.”
EU data goes to show that transportation is the only sector in which greenhouse gas emissions have increased in the last three decades, rising 33.5% between 1990 and 2019. Passenger cars are a big-time polluter, accounting for 61% of total CO2 emissions from road transport.
The EU wants to radically reduce emissions from transportation by 2050 and promote electric vehicles, but a report from the bloc’s external auditor showed last year that the region does not have the appropriate charging stations.
