EU Parliament approves ban on combustion engines
The EU Parliament has formally approved a law which effectively bans the registration in Europe of new cars and vans that produce greenhouse gases from 2035. There were 340 votes in favour and 279 against the move. Europe's press sees advantages and disadvantages.
Sensible and doable
Handelsblatt supports the decision:
“This is not some crazy initiative that left-wing activists have come up with, but a law passed by a broad majority of parliaments and governments, confirmed and given additional emphasis by the German Constitutional Court. And it is doable if, firstly, consistent investments are made in wind and solar power and, secondly, the energy generated is used as efficiently as possible.”
New dependencies
Eesti Päevaleht sees disadvantages:
“As with the whole green transition, sadly everything looks nicer and more feasible on paper than in reality. ... It's already foreseeable that one dependency will simply be replaced by another here. Eighty percent of the most important component in electric cars - the batteries - are made in China. This percentage will probably decrease, but three main components will still be required: nickel, cobalt and lithium. It's hard to imagine that they can be extracted and processed without China. The benefits for the environment are questionable.”