Germany changed their mind: no longer want to give up internal combustion engines

Germany and Italy say 'no' to the abolition of internal combustion engines

Germany and Italy announced their support for the European car industry, which is calling on the European Union (EU) to relax CO2 emission standards for cars and to end the sale of new petrol and diesel models by 2035.

The two sides are reportedly planning to propose at Thursday's EU Council summit that the review clause be moved from the end of 2026 to the beginning of 2025.

The countries' representatives are basing their position on the fact that the European automotive industry is facing challenges, with tens of thousands of redundancies predicted^[1].

In this context, the EU has two options: to create the conditions for the automotive industry to continue functioning or to postpone its green deal plans definitively.

Automotive industry speaks of a long-overdue downturn

The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) recently called for a delay in stricter emission limits following the EU's decision.

The influential Brussels-based group, whose members include BMW, Ford, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo, reported that new car registrations fell below 644,000 in August this year, more than 18% lower than in the same month of 2023.

"We lack the essential conditions to achieve the necessary momentum in the production and deployment of zero-emission vehicles: charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure, as well as a competitive manufacturing environment, affordable green energy, purchasing and tax incentives, and a secure supply of raw materials, hydrogen, and batteries," said the ACEA Board.

As a reminder, car manufacturers are currently required to ensure that the average annual emissions of all their cars sold in a year do not exceed 115.1 grams per kilometre, a limit that is set to be tightened to 93.6 grams next year.

As a result, ACEA has called on the EU to implement "emergency measures", but the European Commission (EC) believes that the industry is at least partly to blame for the situation.

"There are still 15 months of car sales to go and the industry has time to meet its targets," said a Commission spokesman.

Last year's adoption of further emission reduction deadlines means that from 2035, only cars and vans with zero CO2 emissions will be allowed to be sold in the EU. However, Germany had already forced last-minute changes, including a clause calling for a review in 2026 of the possibility of continuing to register cars designed to use synthetic, low-carbon fuels. This would mean keeping internal combustion engines.

Last year, Boris Rhein, the conservative leader and Premier of the German state of Hessen, argued that the internal combustion engine should be improved rather than banned outright. The use of CO2-neutral fuels gives the internal combustion engine a future, Rhein said.

"The more we move away from the internal combustion engine and the diesel engine developed by [German inventor Nicolaus] Otto, the more dependent we will become on Chinese battery technology for car production," said Rhein. - If we ban it now, the clean internal combustion engine - and the value it generates - will not be developed in this country but in other regions.

Germany is tearing down power plants and digging up coal

We have written before about Germany's increasing abandonment of the Green Deal and its move towards a different path. A year ago, news broke that the German company RWE had recently started dismantling a wind farm in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. The company plans to dismantle at least eight wind turbines in the near future, and one wind turbine has already been demolished.

The entire wind farm is being demolished to make way for coal mining: up to 20 million tonnes of highly polluting, brown coal could be mined in this area of Germany.

The demolition is part of an agreement reached last year between Robert Habeck, the German Green Party's Minister for the Economy and Climate, and Mona Neubaur, the Minister for the Economy of North Rhine-Westphalia.

And it's not just in Germany that the popularity of wind turbines is declining quite rapidly. In the wake of the energy crisis in Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there was a lot of hope for the development of wind turbines, but both large and smaller countries on the Old Continent are increasingly turning to well-proven and much cheaper resources such as liquefied natural gas or coal.

And while wind power is stagnating, interest in coal is growing. A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggests that global coal consumption will reach a new record high in 2022.

The IEA's semi-annual coal market update says coal consumption in 2022 will rise by 3.3% to 8.3 billion tonnes.

In Scotland, even wind farms are powered by fossil fuels

It has also recently emerged that in Scotland, even wind farms that are considered sustainable are actually powered by fossil fuels, which are considered more polluting.

Diesel generators powered dozens of giant turbines at Scottish wind farms, until Scottish Power itself finally admitted that 71 of its windmills had been switched to fossil fuels after a grid failure^[2].

The company said it had been forced to take action to warm up the turbines during the very cold weather in December, but one of the informants who spoke to the UK media said the incident was one of a series of environmental, health and safety breaches.

The wind farms are operated by Scottish Power Renewables, a subsidiary of Spain-based Iberdrola, which has 1 183 onshore turbines that can generate enough electricity to power two million homes.

A spokesman for Scottish Power confirmed that the diesel generators were used for a "short period of time" due to an "external fault in the GB grid" which prevented three wind turbines from operating in December's extremely cold weather. The spokesperson claimed that diesel was not used to generate electricity.

EU green policy continues to fuel passions

The European Green Deal is an initiative to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The policy is linked to economic sustainability, investment in clean energy, promotion of a circular economy, and protection of biodiversity.

It aims to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. However, the plan is the subject of much debate.

Critics argue that the drive to shift economies to green energy could be costly, especially for smaller countries or regions with a heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Business and industry fear that heavy investment in green energy and technology could lead to a loss of competitiveness in the global market, especially compared to countries that do not have such stringent environmental requirements.

There are fears that the transition to a greener economy could penalize certain groups of workers, particularly in sectors that rely on coal, oil, or gas. Critics stress the need to provide adequate retraining and employment opportunities for workers in these sectors.

Some believe technological solutions are not yet sufficiently advanced to ensure a sustainable and cost-effective transition to renewable energy. Energy storage, wind and solar efficiency, and infrastructure modernization remain technical challenges. Some politicians and economists question whether the objectives of the Green Deal are achievable without significant economic and social consequences. Some also point out that increased regulation may make it more difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to develop.