Open letter to German Chancellor Scholz on CO2 Standards for cars and vans
Open letter
Industry and civil society call for certainty, ambition, and respect of co-legislators’ agreement on CO2 standards for cars and vans
Adressed to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Dear Chancellor Olaf Scholz,
The recent yet indefinite postponement of the vote on the CO2 Standards for cars and vans within the Council of the European Union has brought concerns to both business and civil society organisations alike.
With this open letter, the Platform for electromobility, uniting both spheres in a 47-member strong alliance to ensure the conditions for the full electrification of new light-duty vehicles by 2035, renews its support to the overall greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 55% by 2030 and the climate neutrality objective by 2050. Reducing – and ultimately eliminating – emissions from cars, vans and trucks will be key to achieving these objectives.
As validated by the European Parliament in February, the cars and vans CO2 legislation will increase the offer and promote the market uptake of zero-emission vehicles. With an increased market, zero-emissions vehicles will also become more affordable with a continuously reduced total cost of ownership and more choice for consumers and will also help tackle air quality and noise issues, bringing an overall benefit to society.
The EU CO2 standards regulation delivers genuine benefits for transport, ensuring planning and investment certainty, setting clear signals to not only car makers and consumers but also to EV infrastructure providers on the required pace for the transition to zero-emission mobility. However, recent political backpedalling has severely blurred those signals to European industries, investors and infrastructure providers as well as the legal certainty formerly established by the EU’s institutional procedures.
The Platform for electromobility thus urges the Swedish Government, as President of the Council, to first provide clarity and certainty on the agenda and secondly to safeguard the agreement as was already agreed in good faith between the EP and Council. Reneging on this deal not only puts at risk the EU Green Deal’s goal to fully decarbonise road transport by 2050, but undermines the very credibility of the EU’s established democratic norms.
Sincerely yours,
CO2 Standards for HDVs: Our open letter to Commissioner Breton to boost clean tech industries
Open letter
Cleantech companies and civil society see ambitious truck CO2 standards as catalyst for growing EU supply chains
Adressed to Commissioner Thierry Breton
Dear Commissioner Breton,
We, a large group of industries and civil society organisations stakeholders from the freight, e-mobility and clean tech supply chain, welcome your efforts to respond to the U.S. IRA and boost investments into sustainable and clean European technologies. As we are actively working on the decarbonisation of our industry branches, we fully support the targets of the European Green Deal and Europe’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets.
The Smart & Sustainable Mobility Strategy sets a clear goal for Europe to reduce transport emissions by 90% in 2050. Decarbonising freight transport will require reducing its dependency on fossil fuels, shifting a larger share of traffic to more sustainable transport modes and finally through the internalisation of external costs. The upcoming CO2 performance standards for heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) will stimulate the investments required to achieve the first of these objectives. Cleantech in the EU road freight and heavy-duty vehicle infrastructure sectors is in the early stages. By mirroring the new targets for trucks to the blueprint Europe has just set out for its automotive sector, these sectors can surf on and amplify each other’s supply chains. Mandating around half of new trucks to be zero emission from 2030 and almost all of them from 2035 will shore up demand for battery cells made in EU gigafactories and staffed with EU workers. A balanced policy mix matches increased governmental investment support with such greater demands from, and clarity on the shared end goals for, our EU industries. This will help greening homegrown EU freight sector that can compete with, and ultimately again overcome, competition from across the oceans.
Today, zero-emission trucks are still produced in small numbers. Ambitious standards for trucks can achieve what has been done for cars: seriously scaling up the supply, thereby bringing down the cost per unit. Whilst the CO2 standards as a regulatory tool safeguard the roadmap for a rapid green transition, the subsidies funnel money directly into the sustainable freight and mobility solutions to enable and ensure a thriving European clean tech industry. That way all actors, especially smaller and medium-sized companies, remain competitive and can be part of Europe’s green transition.
We, the undersigned organisations, see ambitious CO2 targets for trucks as an essential means to ensure EU cleantech investments are boosted and channelled into sustainable road freight technologies. This complements the parallel push to switch traffic to more sustainable modes of transport and the internalisation of external costs. Green technologies – from renewable energy to battery production – will secure and provide jobs in Europe, now and in the future. Strong CO2 standards provide certainty to our European industries in a challenging and changing world. And they utilise the momentum of progressive frontrunners that have shown electric trucks are part of Europe’s flagship clean technologies.
