The regulation foresees that CO2 emissions from new cars and light commercial vehicles will be reduced to zero by 2035. That means de facto that the light turns red for petrol and diesel cars on European roads. In the meantime, emissions from new cars must already be reduced by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 2021, and those from vans halved.
In the preceding debate, opponents warned, among other things, of the loss of thousands of jobs and more expensive cars, but Vice-President Frans Timmermans of the European Commission disputed this. “The running costs of an electric car are already lower and within a few years the purchase of an electric car will also be cheaper than that of a car with a combustion engine,” he argued.
In Belgium, diesel and petrol cars still represent more than 90 percent of the vehicle fleet, but the transition has also started in our country. The federal government has set itself the goal of making all company cars electric by 2026. In its climate plan last year, the Flemish government expressed the ambition to phase out the sale of new cars with a combustion engine from the end of this decade.
The regulation is part of the European climate package Fit for 55. This package aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and to keep the EU on track in the longer term to achieve a climate-neutral climate by 2050. to become a continent.