It’s rustling in the paper forest: Now the EU Parliament has also decided to “stop combustion engines”. A new situation does not justify this, but the EU is still a long way from correcting earlier decisions. Prof. Thomas Koch from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) classifies the resolution.
Professor Koch, after the Commission, the EU Parliament has now come out in favor of a ban on internal combustion engines from 2035. Did that change the situation?
“A political decision was made by the EU Commission in particular, but also by the European Parliament, which was simply possible due to the current majority situation. However, this decision will be reviewed by 2026 at the latest, as it has been stipulated. Until then, however, alternatives such as CO2-neutral fuels, which play an important role in other countries around the world, are being deliberately prevented by EU policy as a solution for cars.”
In your opinion, has Parliament dealt with the subject sufficiently?
“It is claimed that the decision is necessary for climate protection reasons. However, this is an advanced and not reliable argument. Hundreds of scientists have written to the EU Commission and the EU Parliament and have repeatedly clarified this so that they do not fall for accounting fraud, which is committed in particular by well-known NGOs such as Transport & Environment or Greenpeace.
Was the calculation wrong?
“They are simply operating with totally wrong numbers. A Member of Parliament, who is not an expert, normally cannot identify this at a glance. However, the energy experts and balance sheet experts have pointed out and explained in detail that CO2 savings cannot be achieved at all through electromobility in many European countries. And so the EU strategy at least negligently violates the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to spare humanity’s remaining CO2 budget. Because with the rapid expansion of electromobility through infrastructure development, production and operation of the vehicles, there will even be increased CO2 emissions. The fact that these emissions are not actually at issue is already clear from the fact that even a hydrogen engine, which is produced with green hydrogen from sustainable excess electricity, is not taken into account in the vehicle segment up to 3.5 tons.”
What do you expect if the current decisions are not corrected?
“First of all, collateral damage will be done on a larger scale. Many European companies and suppliers will shut down operations, relocate abroad or at least cut jobs, especially in Germany. Chinese companies will gain a foothold faster and expand their market share with attractive hybrid models.”
Will Europe accept that?
“I believe that this process will eventually be recognized by the EU and countermeasures will then be introduced. But the damage will then be done, and the loss of our decades-old technological leadership is already irreversible today. And the current decisions and affirmations, like now by the European Parliament, only exacerbate the problem.”
What does that mean for the driver?
“The proportion of the population with small wallets will suffer the most. Entry-level vehicles have already become expensive, and operation is also becoming more and more expensive. The actions are obviously not an environmental protection program, but an attack on individual mobility.” (Jens Meiners/cen)