EU Unveils Absurd Climate Targets ‘To Give Humanity A Fighting Chance’

Europe’s push for electrification could include the ban of gas and diesel car sales within two decades.

Lawmakers in the European Union (EU) are set to propose new measures today that will accelerate the ban of internal combustion engines, according to Reuters.

The great reset of transportation, or rather a clean overhaul of vehicles, is part of new measures to reduce carbon emissions by 55% from 1990s levels by 2030. By 2050, Europe plans to become the world’s first net-zero emissions continent.

… and good luck with those targets – lawmakers usually overpromise and underdeliver. 

We’ve noted multiple times that the EU’s green energy policy targets are hogwash and will likely not be met (read: here & here).

So today, the European Commission (EC), the executive branch of the European Union responsible for proposing legislation, will unveil binding emission targets that could make internal combustion engines illegal for sale across the 27-country bloc by 2035 or 2040.

Nick Parker, a managing director at consultancy AlixPartners, said that most carmakers’ models two decades from now will be “electrified.”

He said, “the question is whether they (the EU) might try to force the journey along the way or leave it up to individual carmakers to decide that path for themselves.”

Bloomberg said, “the new vehicle emission targets would be a significant tightening compared with the existing fleet-wide emissions goals, which require a 37.5% reduction from 2030 for cars. Passenger cars account for about 12% of total EU CO2 emissions.” 

Barclays Plc has doubts about the proposed emissions reduction target by 2030. The bank finds it challenging for automakers to achieve a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 even with hybrids, adding that future government policy could spur further adoption of battery-electric vehicles.

“These targets should not come as a surprise, although they clearly require an accelerated shift,” Kai Alexander Mueller, a Barclays auto analyst, wrote last week.

One of the EU’s most prominent manufacturers, Volkswagen, plans to slash internal combustion engine sales by at least 70% by 2030.

Renault and Ford have also mentioned the push towards electrified vehicles to be a majority of sales by the end of the decade. Other automakers are expected to follow suit as soon as the new measures are revealed.

The proposed new measures of tightening carbon emission targets could be a massive boost for the EU’s electric car market. The phasing-out of combustion engines is part of the great reset that is well underway.

The BBC shed more color on the dozen draft proposals that include the banning of combustion engines in vehicles to taxes on jet fuel to emissions on ships.

The proposals are likely to come under a lot of debate over the coming months.

“We’re going to ask a lot of our citizens,” EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said.

“We’re also going to ask a lot of our industries, but we do it for a good cause. We do it to give humanity a fighting chance.”

The opposition will likely be in full swing as industry leaders, such as airlines and vehicle manufacturers and countries from the eastern region of the EU that heavily rely on fossil fuels, will be against such proposals.

Already, France is opposed to a 2035 or 2040 ban of the combustion engine in autos.

At least President Trump was honest about his support for the oil and gas industry because there is just no way in hell that green energy projects will have enough power capacity to fuel the economy of tomorrow when by 2050, the Earth’s population is estimated to increase by at least 1.9 billion people.

h/t Rúnar O.

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