Denmark Wants EU To Phase Out Diesel And Petrol Vehicles From 2030

Denmark is calling the European Union to issue a phase-out plan for diesel and petrol cars in a proposal that’s backed by 10 other EU countries.

The proposal, which was made during a meeting of EU environment ministers, also includes allowing the ban of sales at member state-level by 2030 as a measure against climate change, Reuters reports.

The European Commission wants to make Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050 but Denmark argues that in order to achieve this, the transport sector must decrease its emissions.

Also Read: France On Track To Ban New Petrol And Diesel Car Sales By 2040

EU’s goal is to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, with the European Commission planning to reduce them to zero by 2050 in a bid to stop global warming. “We need to acknowledge that we are in a bit of a hurry,” Danish Climate and Energy Minister Dan Jorgensen said after the meeting.

Back in October 2018, Denmark announced that they would ban sales of all fossil fuel-powered cars by 2030, but later scrapped the idea because that was against EU rules.

Jorgensen’s new proposal now includes allowing individual member states to ban sales on diesel and petrol cars, saying that this will hopefully put pressure on the European Commission for a complete phase-out of fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the region.

“Plan A would be to make it a European ban,” the Danish minister said. However, countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and others suggested that more must be done to stop the so-called “carbon-leakage” of selling used vehicles from western Europe to the eastern countries.

Jorgensen said that it’s important the EU to communicate its long-term policy directions to car makers and that Denmark will set up an alliance with the 10 countries that support its strategy to phase out diesel and petrol cars to apply more pressure on the EU.