German transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), however, who had set the ball rolling on the e-fuels exception by threatening to block the CO2 standard’s adoption without a written commitment from the Commission, had instead called for “practical” solutions and said that this “can’t be 100%” emissions reductions, thereby backing DG GROW.Į-fuels, which take large amounts of electricity to be produced, can reach climate neutrality by being produced with green energy sources which would otherwise not be built and CO2 sucked from the atmosphere, using a technology called “Direct Air Capture” (DAC). This received pushback from environmental organisations and within the Commission, as the department responsible for climate action (DG CLIMA) warned that it could set a precedent for technologies being considered “CO2 neutral” despite not reaching actual neutrality. This comes after an internal dispute emerged between the Commission’s Department for the Internal Market (DG GROW) and the department in charge of climate protection.Īn earlier draft, written by DG GROW and seen by Euractiv, obliged synthetic e-fuels to only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% compared to fossil fuels, as defined in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED). In a new draft implementing regulation seen by Euractiv, the Commission clarifies that for e-fuels to be eligible for this, they need to reach full climate neutrality, namely a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 100%. However, after a showdown with Germany, an exception was included, allowing the registration of new combustion engine vehicles even after 2035, provided that they run “exclusively on CO2 neutral fuels”.įor this to be implemented, the Commission committed to creating a new vehicle category of combustion engine cars, which can only be filled with synthetic fuels, known as e-fuels. In March 2023, EU countries adopted updated rules for new cars and vans, allowing only zero-emission vehicles to be registered as of 2035, de-facto banning cars with internal combustion engines from registering after that date. E-fuels must be climate-neutral for new vehicles with combustion engines to be sold after 2035, according to a new draft regulation – which resolves an internal dispute within the EU Commission – seen by Euractiv.
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