Combustion engines have no future - with or without e-fuels

With every day of insufficient action towards decarbonisation, the world edges closer to catastrophic climate breakdown. In this time of urgency with the path to a sustainable future narrowing with every molecule of carbon dioxide we produce, the German government decided to throw a wrench in the already less than smoothly running gears of common European climate mitigation policy. Suddenly, the German government, on behalf of the German Free Democratic party (FDP), threatens to block the approval of the EU ban of combustion engines in new cars from 2035  - unless it includes an exemption for cars that use e-fuels. 

This is frankly absurd. First, the German government had approved the current version of the deal twice, setting a dangerous precedent by deviating from what was thought to be a done deal and damaging democratic processes within the EU. Second, many German car manufacturers have already declared to phase-out combustion engines until the end of this decade. Third, e-fuels, made from captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen, lack both energy efficiency and credible supply chains in line with European sustainability goals. Fourth, cars running on e-fuels share the health hazards of combustion engines running on conventional fuels, contributing to the estimated hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the EU due to air pollution. Thus, while e-fuels as a low-carbon alternative may have a future in modes of transport that are hard to decarbonise by electrification such as aviation, e-fuels have little added value in cars. Stopping a crucial piece of legislation in climate crisis mitigation on these grounds is a needless and careless act with blatant disrespect for facts and European democratic processes.   

So why does the German FDP, for sure aware of all the facts, behave like this? Because national parties must defend national interests as part of their DNA, even if they are ostensibly pro-European. This behaviour, however, is a major threat to climate crisis mitigation, since climate crisis mitigation with all its dimensions can only be successful if Europe stands united. If every climate crisis policy is unraveled, once an individual national party has opposing interests, the EU will neither achieve carbon neutrality itself, nor be a leading example for green transition in the global context. No Member State should let its national interests prevail. And yet, this is exactly what Germany does with its last minute move to refuse to vote on the EU ban of combustion engines in new cars from 2035. This highlights once more why the EU desperately needs pan-European political actors such as Volt that can transcend competing and often short term national interests and focus on what is beneficial and essential for all in the long run.

Further delaying the approval and implementation of the ban of combustion engines is not in the EU’s united interests. It is not in the interest of the hundred of millions of people worldwide threatened by rising seas, ecological disasters, and extreme weather events. The ban must be rapidly approved, without any new exemptions that at worst undermine its effectiveness and at best are a meaningless gesture. This is not the time for debates that are more based in national clientelism than in facts - the climate breakdown clock is ticking.