The European Commission (EC) proposed on Wednesday an ambitious action plan for the complete elimination of carbon emissions in EU by 2050, which will require a complete restructuring of the EU economy. This document was presented by the head of the EC Ursula von der Leyen and five key European commissioners at the first full-fledged press conference in the European Commission since the beginning of the pandemic with the personal participation of journalists.
“Today we are introducing a comprehensive package of proposals to ensure that we meet our target of reducing our carbon emissions by 55% [compared to 1990] and building a carbon neutral economy by 2050,” von der Leyen said.
The document lays down new approaches to the regulation of European energy, all types of transport, the construction sector, industry, infrastructure, assumes a significant expansion of the carbon trading system, including for aviation and water transport, environmental tariffs on imports, the concept of carbon sequestration through mass planting of forests, and the creation of financial instruments worth more than € 100 billion to reduce social harm from these complex measures.
In particular, the European Commission proposed introducing "climatic" customs duties on imports of steel, aluminum and cement into the European Union and introducing progressive climatic tariffs for air and sea transport. The EC has proposed expanding the carbon trading system for aircraft and ships. “We need to do this because only one ship produces as much carbon gases as 80,000 cars every day,” said von der Leyen.
The EC also proposed to ban the production of conventional fuel vehicles in the European Union from 2035 if their carbon emissions differ from zero. "Tighter emission standards for cars will accelerate the transition to zero-emission transport. They will require a 55% reduction in [EU-made] cars' carbon emissions by 2030 from 2021 levels and by 100% by 2035, - the document says - As a result, all new cars registered [in the EU] in 2035 will have zero carbon emissions.
The European Commission also proposed new standards for the placement of gas stations and charging stations for such cars - on the main highways of the EU, charging stations for electric vehicles will have to be located every 60 km by 2035, and hydrogen dispensers - every 150 km.