By Andrea Thomas
BERLIN (Dow Jones) — Green party leader Omid Nouripour has criticized the FDP’s approach to the planned phasing out of combustion engines and the replacement of gas and oil heating systems. The traffic light coalition agreed on both, as he told the news channel ntv. Nouripour accused Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) of not sticking to agreements on the end of combustion engines at EU level. Wissing, on the other hand, confirmed that the use of e-fuels must be possible and that he was therefore against a general end for combustion engines.
“Perhaps the FDP should see where they have agreed to everything they suddenly no longer want to know,” said Nouripour on Wednesday on ntv. The FDP had previously criticized the plans of the Federal Ministry of Economics, led by the Greens, that new gas and oil heating systems would no longer be allowed to be installed from 2024 if they did not generate at least 65 percent of the heat provided from renewable energies. In the coalition agreement, there was talk of this requirement from 2025. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed in March last year on a ban from “if possible” as early as 2024.
Wissing also said the day before that he would not support the end of cars with a combustion engine planned in the European Union (EU) for 2035 without an exemption for synthetic fuels. The FDP has always made its approval dependent on this exception.
“I can’t keep up with that either, that’s also something that has long been agreed and is actually done at the European level. To be honest, it’s a bit confusing for the other EU member states when the Germans have a lot of processes that last for months, years run, suddenly want to stop in the last meters”, criticized Nouripour. “But the same applies here: We are not two in a coalition, but three.”
Wissing insists on e-fuels and openness to technology
In the ARD morning magazine, Wissing once again reiterated his negative attitude towards the end of combustion engines. “It is crucial that politicians regulate with an open mind to technology and do not ban individual types of drive, especially since they are climate-neutral,” said Wissing on Wednesday with a view to combustion engines if they are operated with e-fuels. “We need e-fuels. There is no alternative to operating our existing fleet in a climate-neutral manner.”
According to Wissing, e-fuels, which are produced as synthetic fuels using renewable energies, are climate-neutral.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 01, 2023 04:42 ET (09:42 GMT)