Greenpeace, the environmental organization, has sharply criticized the agreement between the German government and the European Commission reached on Saturday to allow new vehicles with internal combustion engines even after 2035, as long as they use only climate-neutral fuel.
Members of the Green political parties in the European Parliament said they want to take a closer look at the electric fuel deal, while the German auto industry has sung its praise.
“This bad compromise undermines climate protection in transport and harms Europe,” Greenpeace mobility expert Benjamin Stephan said in Berlin on Saturday. “The automotive industry’s urgently needed shift towards efficient electromobility” would be watered down with the deal, he said.
MPs said they needed to look closely at the deal.
“We will look into the proposal very closely from a legal and political point of view,” said German Greens spokesman in the European Parliament, Rasmus Andresen.
The president of the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA) sees the agreement between Berlin and Brussels as a positive sign for climate protection.
“We need all climate-friendly technologies to achieve the EU’s climate goals,” he said.
A compromise was needed after the German free-market Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), a junior partner in Germany’s governing coalition, said it would revise an agreement it had already agreed with the EU on phasing out combustion engines in new cars by 2035.
The FDP’s request led to weeks of wrangling not only between the EU and Germany, but also within the German government itself.
Germany has a major automotive industry which is expected to implement EU law in its product lines; For the EU, combustion engine standards are seen as a central component of the bloc’s plans to become climate-neutral by 2050.
Critics of the e-fuel proposal argue that fuels are scarce and require a relatively large amount of energy to produce compared to electric cars. Alternative fuels would be needed most urgently in aviation and shipping, they say.
The anger of German environmentalists was also directed at the German government. Greenpeace’s Stephan accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of failing to stop the FDP’s “ruthless blackmail of the EU”.
“After this disappointing result, it is all the more clear that Scholz must convince the FDP to act effectively on climate protection in transport at tomorrow’s coalition committee,” he said, referring to a meeting scheduled for Sunday.
“Instead of criss-crossing the country on more climate-damaging highways, the federal government should now focus fully on expanding railroads.”
In addition to the FDP, party members of the German coalition also include Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens.
Sunday’s meeting is expected to focus on climate change issues, including the expansion of highways and railway lines, as well as the planned phasing out of oil and gas heating systems.