Denmark called on the EU Commission to introduce an EU-wide ban on diesel and petrol cars by 2040 preceded by a phase-out from 2030 in its climate strategy. Ten other European Union countries backed the proposal Denmark made during a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg.

It is unknown which other countries are backing the proposal, unfortunately. For Denmark, however, the project is urgent. The EU aims to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 while the Commission, plans to reduce them to zero by 2050 to help stop global warming. Denmark argues that to achieve this goal, the transport sector needs to decrease their emissions. It is the only sector that currently is increasing its emissions, reports Reuters.

“We need to acknowledge that we are in a bit of a hurry,” Danish Climate and Energy Minister Dan Jorgensen told the news agency after the meeting. He added the diesel and petrol car ban would hopefully put pressure on the Commission to propose phasing out fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the EU in the coming two decades.

Denmark itself had announced already in 2018 that it would ban the sale of all ICEs by 2030, but the idea would have breached EU rules and was thus scrapped. Therefore, the minister added that, if the EU could not agree on a union-wide ban, it should allow individual member states to implement such a measure.

“Plan A would be to make it a European ban,” Jorgensen told Reuters. He also considers it essential to communicate the EU’s long-term strategy to carmakers and that Denmark’s next step was to set up an alliance with the ten member states that support its proposal.

Denmark’s latest climate action plan (klima- og luftudspil) of 2018 includes various measures, among them the initial goal to ban the sales of all ICEs by 2030 and hybrid cars by 2035. Also, the Danes will electrify their entire taxi and bus fleet by 2030. The electrification of transport further includes the installation of charging infrastructure and the government agreed to invest 80 million kroner (about 10,724 million euros).

reuters.com