Combustion engine ban from 2035: The will to protect the climate is there

With the decision to ban internal combustion engines, the MEPs have shown that they are serious about climate protection. However, Parliament still has some work to do on emissions trading.

Climate protection can be so easy – if you really mean it. Otherwise it gets complicated. The Members of the European Parliament have demonstrated that in quite an impressive way.

On the one hand, they have spoken out in favor of the end of the internal combustion engine in cars and small cars by 2035 at the latest – on the other hand, they could not bring themselves to really tighten emissions trading in the European Union so much that it would help would against global warming. The latter is regrettable, but the end of the combustion engine is also a symbolically correct and important step.

Yes – industrial associations, car lobbies or Christian Democrats may succumb to the wailing and apocalyptic mood – such courageous political decisions are needed if you really want to achieve a clearly defined goal. And this goal is climate neutrality by the middle of the century.

Politicians must limit the costs of mobility for the climate

Car traffic in Europe contributes significantly to climate change. And it’s not getting any less, on the contrary. Nobody can accuse people of the fact that individual mobility is important to them. But politicians must keep the costs of this mobility within limits. And heating up the climate further through more and more private transport means massive costs. For all. The storm catastrophes of the past year revealed this in a frightening way.

A “continue like this” is therefore not allowed. Admittedly, that’s difficult in a country where a party that is committed to freedom still makes it possible for supposedly free citizens to travel freely, i.e. to keep their lead feet on the autobahn. A shocking anachronism – and it is actually beneficial that, at least in the European Parliament, such madness is now being countered with something big and beneficially sensible with the ban on internal combustion engines.

Auto industry has time to prepare

And it’s not like it’s going to be tomorrow. The industry has a whopping twelve years to adjust to this. That should do. Just a reminder: If you would have dared to predict twelve years ago that in Germany by 2022 almost half of the electricity will come from renewable energy, you would probably have said back then: never!

But societies continue to develop – and with them the technical possibilities. What is needed now is even more green electricity so that electromobility can really come – more solar cells, more wind turbines, on land and on the high seas. And: a growing price for carbon emissions. Key word: emissions trading. The European Parliament has to work this out.

The parliamentarians have finally proven that there is a serious will to protect the climate.