Climate Law makes clear that all transport must be decarbonised
The requirement that all EU countries be climate neutral by 2050 under the Climate Law, proposed today, means all transport will need to be fully decarbonised, Transport & Environment (T&E) has said. For climate-laggard aviation, decarbonisation starts with fuel taxes - on which the EU Commission announced an impact assessment also this afternoon. The absence of climate progress in the shipping sector should be addressed by including its pollution in the EU emissions trading system (ETS), which the Commission has pledged to do.
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William Todts, executive director at T&E, said: “Climate neutrality means the transport sector finally needs to begin its journey to a zero emissions future. For cars and trucks we’ll need a rapid shift to electric vehicles, powered by renewable electricity. But we’ll also need zero emission solutions for aviation and shipping where the rapid deployment of hydrogen, ammonia and e-fuels is essential. None of this will just happen so the Commission will need to present policies to make its vision reality.”
T&E’s vision for transport under the EU Green Deal calls for a phase-out of combustion car sales by 2035 and stronger CO2 standards for cars and trucks to make clean vehicles more available and affordable. The shift to electrification will help the European automotive industry win the technological race and make the European economy stronger by reducing its reliance on imported oil.
In aviation T&E calls for carbon pricing, fuel taxes to put a stop to airline emissions growth, and a requirement for carriers to start using zero-emission efuels. In shipping, an ambitious EU operational CO2 standard for vessels calling at European ports would cut its emissions by almost a quarter.