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Green deal needs to balance climate protection, economy and social dimension

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented today the Communication on the European Green Deal, detailing next steps in climate policy, including the announcement of a proposal to enshrine the 2050 climate neutrality objective in legislation. The Commission also sets out to adopt proposals for specific sectors, such as a revision of the CO2 standards for light duty vehicles, deployment of charging infrastructure, support for alternative fuels and more stringent pollutant emission standards.

 

Sigrid de Vries, Secretary General of CLEPA, the association of the automotive suppliers’ industry in Europe, comments:

 

“The automotive suppliers of Europe are a driving force behind the transformation to sustainable, safe and smart mobility. We support the Paris agreement and are ready to contribute to a reliable, technology-open and ambitious regulatory framework to achieve its objectives. We urge the European legislators to build on Europe’s strengths — the single market, the continent’s advanced technology competence, its high value-add industrial base and global competitiveness — and to provide the supportive regulatory framework needed to master the monumental tasks unfolding.”

 

“Ideally, climate policies would be deeply intertwined with a coherent industrial strategy, which ensures that environmental, economic and social policies are balanced. Such balance is precarious and climate protection must condition the strategies towards a sustainable economy as much as the social and economic dimensions should.”

 

“The recently agreed CO2 limits for cars are the world’s most ambitious and will spark real progress towards defossilisation and cleaner air. An earlier revision of the CO2 standards may provide a good opportunity to take stock of progress and to examine whether industry and society are on the right path. However, such revision cannot realistically include a renewed debate on the level of ambition so shortly after adoption. Focus should now turn to enabling the transformation.”

 

“We advocate for an even more intense and constructive dialogue with all stakeholders concerned.  In the crucial and highly-complex area of electrification, we now first and urgently need to enable scale. This means forging a high level of collaboration across Europe to secure the necessary charging infrastructure, stepping up renewable energy generation, promoting green public procurement, and enabling development and production of next-generation batteries.”

 

“There is additional decarbonisation potential in the car fleet which can be realised without changing the current CO2 regulation. This includes making the use of e-fuels a reality by putting binding targets in the revision of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive and Renewable Energy Directive, establishing the emission trading system for the road transport sector, promoting the modal shift via Eurovignette and Combined Transport Directives, improving the prospects for hydrogen and increasing investment in R&D.”

 

“Automotive suppliers are technology solution providers and stand ready to work together towards the common objectives.”

 

 

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