German Greens plan clear focus on e-mobility to lower transport emissions
Handelsblatt
The German Greens propose a transport policy with a clear focus on electric mobility that restricts the use of hydrogen on the road to heavy-duty trucks, reports Daniel Delhaes in business daily Handelsblatt. "The battery electric drive, as the most efficient of all technology options, must be given priority in order to keep energy requirements as low as possible and to make use of the existing technological lead," says a resolution of the Green's parliamentary Group, which was seen by the Handelsblatt.
Germany will elect a new government next year, and current polls suggest that a coalition between Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives (CDU) and the Greens is the most likely outcome. The Greens criticised that the current government coalition partners, the CDU and Social Democrats (SPD) get bogged down in transport policy by insisting on not taking a clear stance on which technology is best suited to lower transport emissions. Parts of the country's car industry also say it is not the government's job to choose the best technology.
The Green's resolution calls for increasing the share of renewable energies in transport "to 30 percent in 2030 and to 100 percent well before 2050”, adding that the taxation of fuels and Germany's truck toll should be consistently based on CO2 emissions. "Electric drives must have the right of way because they are efficient and affordable, but it is also clear that the transport transition will not succeed entirely without hydrogen or e-fuels,” the party's transport policy spokesman, Stephan Kühn, told the Handelsblatt. Hydrogen should only be used in heavy-duty road transport if necessary, he added. The Green's resolution also says that synthetic fuels should only be used in ships and planes, because they won't be available in sufficient amounts to use them on the road. In aviation, they propose an obligatory blending quota of ten percent by 2030. Porsche said this week the use of synthetic fuels in passenger cars could become a reality in about ten years time.
