Combustion off on the brink? Greens are mad at Volker Wissing

The FDP still wants to stop the combustion engine off. The Greens are angry at their coalition partner.

The Greens are growing angry about the plans of Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) to prevent the end of combustion engines in the EU in 2035. “It annoys me extremely that the transport minister is again acting as a brakeman,” said Jan-Niclas Gesenhues, spokesman for environmental policy for the Greens, t-online.

“The synthetic fuels praised by Wissing are a sham solution because they are inefficient and not sufficiently available,” said Gesenhues. “Automakers are much more advanced in phasing out combustion engines than our transport minister.”

Environmental politician Gesenhues demands: “Instead of constantly causing new blockages, the transport minister should finally do his homework on climate protection.” The sector targets specified by the Climate Protection Act are still a long way off, particularly in the transport sector. “The Ministry of Transport also has to abide by the law.”

Wissing had threatened not to agree to the end of new cars with combustion engines planned in the European Union from 2035. The use of synthetic fuels (e-fuels) for cars must be possible after 2035, Wissing told the “Bild” newspaper. Otherwise Germany could not agree to the upcoming votes.

“Against the background of the enormous fleet of cars that we have in Germany alone, there can only be a compromise for the FDP on the fleet limits if the use of e-fuels is also possible,” affirmed Wissing. Otherwise Germany could not agree to the upcoming votes.

Wissing emphasized again that he also means cars that will be newly registered after 2035. In the internal coalition dispute, especially with the Greens, the FDP had succeeded in asking the EU Commission to check whether e-fuels for cars could be an option in the future. “To date we have not heard of any proposals, only negative statements by Commissioner Frans Timmermans,” said Wissing.

According to current plans, no new cars with combustion engines will be registered in the EU from 2035. The EU countries had already agreed on a compromise in October. Most recently, the EU Parliament approved the new CO2 specifications, according to which only new cars may be sold in the EU from 2035 that do not emit any greenhouse gases during operation.

However, the EU states still have to agree in the Council. Apparently, the FDP hopes to get a qualified majority of states there to overturn the decision.