EU ministers have this week finalised two key pieces of legislation to help reduce greenhouse emissions by at least 55% by 2030 in the bloc as part of its Fit for 55 programme of green policies. New EU regulation will phase out new sales of combustion engine cars and vans from 2035 and require a 55% CO2 emission reduction for new cars and 50% for new vans from 2030 to 2034 compared to 2021 levels. The legislation also includes incentives for the sale of zero- and low-emission vehicles (ZLEV) from 2025–2029, with manufacturers being rewarded with less strict CO2 targets, if 25% of their car sales, and 17% of their van sales are ZLEV. This week EU ministers have also adopted two regulations introducing stronger emission reduction targets for a range of industries. The new Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) sets an EU-level greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 40% compared to 2005, by 2030, for road and domestic maritime transport, buildings, agriculture, waste and small industries. The buildings and road transport sector will be covered under both the new dedicated ETS and ESR. The land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) regulation cover emission and removals of CO2 from the atmosphere in non-agricultural use of soil, trees, plants, biomass and timber. The new regulation sets an overall EU-level objective of 310 mega tonnes of CO2 equivalent of net removals in the LULUCF sector in 2030.
Europe is starting 'Fit for 55' implementation to deliver the #EUGreenDeal.
Yesterday, we welcomed the agreement between the @Europarl_EN and @EUCouncil on stricter CO2 emissions for new cars and vans.
All new cars and vans registered in Europe will be zero-emission by 2035. pic.twitter.com/1oJkIVw76r
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) March 29, 2023
