The sale of new gasoline and diesel automobiles and vans will be prohibited by the European Parliament and EU member states by 2035.
In order to meet the EU's climate targets of reducing emissions of gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade, negotiators for the EU secured the first accord of the bloc's "Fit for 55" package on Thursday night.
The agreement, according to the European Parliament, "clearly signals that the EU is serious about implementing specific regulations to attain the more ambitious targets set out in the EU Climate Law" ahead of the UN COP27 Climate Change Conference.
According to the bloc’s data, transport is the only sector where greenhouse gas emissions have increased in the past 30 years, rising 33.5 per cent between 1990 and 2019.
Passenger cars are a significant polluter, accounting for 61 per cent of total CO2 emissions from EU road transport.
The EU wants to drastically reduce gas emissions from transport by 2050 and promote electric cars, but a report from the bloc’s external auditor showed last year that the region is lacking the appropriate charging stations.
“This is a historic decision as it sets for the first time a clear decarbonisation pathway – with targets in 2025, 2030 and 2035 and aligned with our goal of climate neutrality by 2050,” said Pascal Canfin, the chair of the environment committee of the European Parliament.
“This sector, which accounts for 16 per cent of European emissions at the moment, will be carbon neutral by 2050,” Canfin added.
World leaders agreed in Paris in 2015 to work to keep global temperatures from increasing more than 2C (3.6F), and ideally no more than 1.5C (2.7F) by the end of the century.
Scientists even the less ambitious goal will be missed by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to reduce emissions.
Too late
Greenpeace said the 2035 deadline is too late to limit global warming to below 1.5C (2.7F).
“The EU is taking the scenic route, and that route ends in disaster,” said Greenpeace EU transport campaigner Lorelei Limousin.
“A European 2035 phase-out of fossil fuel-burning cars is not quick enough: New cars with internal combustion engines should be banned by 2028 at the latest,” she said.
“The announcement is a perfect example of where politicians can bask in a feel-good headline that masks the reality of their repeated failures to act on climate,” Limousin added.
The European Parliament and member states will now have to formally approve the agreement before it comes into force.