State should support diesel car retrofitting, say government advisors - report

Retrofitting older diesel cars to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions could be financed “fully or for the largest part possible” through a support mechanism, a group of government advisors writes in a draft report, Markus Balser and Michael Bauchmüller write in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Aside from public funds, [this support] could be financed by contributions from the automobile industry,” says the draft, seen by the newspaper. Germany's would-be government coalition partners, the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD), had agreed to make a decision on technical retrofitting later in 2018, based also on the advice of this group of advisors. Established at the diesel summit in 2017, this is one of the expert groups responsible for proposing measures to avoid driving bans and improve air quality. The car industry objects to the idea of spending a lot on hardware retrofitting because of the costs involved, and argues that this would lead to higher fuel consumption and thus increased CO₂ emissions, writes Süddeutsche. The government advisors’ next and probably last meeting will take place on 28 February.  

Read the article in German here.

Find background in the updated CLEW article German cities might test free public transport to cut pollution, and find background on the diesel technology’s impact on clean air and climate in the CLEW article Why the German diesel summit matters for climate and energy.