<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/23/german-government-in-crisis-over-eu-ban-on-car-combustion-engines>
"A clash over climate protection measures is threatening to unravel Germany’s
three-party governing alliance, after the Green party accused its liberal
coalition partners of gambling away the country’s reputation by blocking a
EU-wide phase-out of internal combustion engines in cars.
“You can’t have a coalition of progress where only one party is in charge of
progress and the others try to stop the progress,” the country’s
vice-chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, said at a meeting of the
Green party’s parliamentary group in Weimar on Tuesday.
The pro-business Free Democratic party’s (FDP) last-minute opposition to EU
plans to ban sales of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035,
which European leaders are hoping to resolve at a summit in Brussels on
Thursday and Friday, had damaged Germany’s standing in the bloc, Habeck said.
“We are losing debates, we are getting too little support for our projects.”
The German liberals’ sudden rethink has caused frustration not just in the
ranks of its coalition partners but in other European capitals, where there are
fears that the continent’s largest economy reneging on previously struck
agreements will embolden other states to act in a similarly erratic fashion.
FDP politicians argue that the phase-out in its current form risks destroying a
German manufacturing industry that could in the future offer viable
climate-neutral fuels as an alternative to purely battery-powered electric
vehicles.
“We in Germany master the technology of the combustion engine better than
anyone else in the world,” the FDP transport minister, Volker Wissing, said on
German television on Wednesday night. “And it makes sense to keep this
technology in our hands while some of the questions around climate-neutral
mobility remain unanswered.”
In a proposed compromise, the European Commission has reportedly suggested
criteria for a new category of CO2-neutral fuel-powered vehicles that could
remain on European roads after 2035. Wissing’s transport ministry has not yet
officially replied to the proposal."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
