According to the will of the EU Parliament, there should be no more new cars with combustion engines from 2035. Even if the environmental idea is good: many jobs are at stake. There is a better way to achieve more climate protection.
The EU wants to ban the internal combustion engine from 2035. So more climate protection – good! But I think that when it comes to the climate, we shouldn’t limit the technology, but the harmful emissions. On this path we need openness to technology.
Because it is not bans that point the way to the future, but research and development. If engines can be refueled with synthetic fuels in a climate-neutral manner, what reason is there to ban them?
From my point of view, there is a much better way to more climate protection. And this proposal was also on the table: the expansion of certificate trading to the areas of transport and buildings. The idea behind it is simple: we set the amount of emissions that can be emitted per year. This amount then decreases year after year. I advocate setting the framework for companies and not making their decisions!
Christian Baldauf (CDU) has been a member of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament since 2001. He is not only the parliamentary group leader of the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate, but also currently the leader of the opposition. The politician has been a member of the CDU federal executive board since 2006.
It has always been the case in Germany and Europe that we have relied on the decentralized information in the market. We politicians shouldn’t think we’re smarter than the market. Nor should we try to predict which technologies will lead in ten or twenty years.
Unfortunately, the EU Parliament rejected the path described. But there is still the possibility of improving and accepting the extension in the responsible committee.
No matter which way we go, one thing is clear: we have to cushion the changes on the labor market. The combustion engine secures many jobs in Germany. My home state of Rhineland-Palatinate is particularly affected by its supplier industry. And we are losing the brightest minds in the global competition for innovations. Then we will no longer have engineers who master such technologies – with all the consequences, also for Germany as a location for science.
Surf tip: You can find all the news about the corona pandemic in the FOCUS Online news ticker
In order for the e-car to be able to assert itself in the long term, an ambitious development of charging and refueling infrastructure and a secure supply of electricity are necessary. Gas should be our bridging technology to renewable energies. If this bridge collapses due to the Russian war of aggression, we must build another one.
We must therefore talk more openly about nuclear energy. Nuclear power has no long-term future in Germany and we don’t want to build any new reactors. But the existing power plants can help to bridge supply bottlenecks in the coming years.
For me, therefore, there is no way around a serious examination of the extension of the service life of the nuclear power plants still remaining on the grid. If we want to secure the energy supply and enable affordable electricity prices at the same time, we have to approach such questions non-ideologically. That also means openness to technology.
Now save articles for later in “Pocket”.
