Germany will not join the alliance of more than 30 countries that want to set an end date for car sales from gasoline engines and diesel engines. A spokesman for the German environment ministry said on Wednesday at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow that Germany would not sign a declaration on zero-emission cars. As he added, the German government carefully considered this decision.
Synthetic fuels are a bone of contention
A spokesman for the Ministry of Environment admitted that there is a consensus in the German government that from 2035 only zero-emission vehicles should be registered. “However, there is still disagreement on a marginal aspect of the statement, namely whether renewable synthetic fuels (e-fuels) in internal combustion engines can be part of the solution,” said a spokesman.
The German Ministry for the Environment believes, like the signatory states, that e-fuels in passenger cars are not achieving the goal for the sake of accessibility and efficiency.
In Germany, the Ministry of Transport, headed by the Christian Democrat Andreas Scheuer (from the Bavarian CSU), is opposing the declaration. It was he who had previously rejected Germany’s proposal to join the alliance, criticizing that the Glasgow declaration did not include synthetic fuel engines. Therefore, his ministry was against it.
