Germany will need all new cars to be emissions free by 2030 if it hopes to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80 to 95% by 2050, Deputy Economy Minister Rainer Baake told a climate forum in Berlin last week.
“Fact is there’s been no reduction at all in CO2 emissions by transport since 1990,” Baake said. “We don’t have any answers to cut truck emissions right now, but we do have answers for cars.” The 2030 target date reflects the 20-year lifespan of the average car, leading the government to try and cut registrations of diesel and gasoline vehicles over the next 15 years.
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So far, “Germany is lagging behind cuts to greenhouse gas that transportation emits, which according to the Environment Ministry account for a fifth of the country’s carbon dioxide pollution,” Bloomberg reports. “The sector needs to cut some 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next five years from a tally of about 165 million tons last year.” Uptake of electric cars has been slow, although the government hopes EV incentives will produce about 500,000 sales by 2020.
